Peabody Coal Co. v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs

SUTTON, Circuit Judge,

concurring in the denial of en banc review, in which KETHLEDGE, J., joined.

Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211, 115 S.Ct. 1447, 131 L.Ed.2d 328 (1995), holds that Congress may not enact legislation that reopens final judgments entered by an Article III court without trespassing on the separation-of-powers guarantees of the Constitution. In today’s case, our court has construed a provision of the Black Lung Benefits Act in a way that seems to do just that. Based on an amendment to the Act—included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA),…