In the 1992 case of Henry Harper, et al. v. Virginia Department of Taxation, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that states are not required to refund taxes collected before a law was declared unconstitutional. The plaintiffs were federal retirees who had paid state income tax on their pensions in Virginia and sought refunds after it was determined that taxing federal pensions while exempting state ones violated principles of intergovernmental tax immunity. However, the court held by a 7-2 majority that there is no clear constitutional mandate or precedent requiring states to provide retrospective relief as such an obligation would place significant financial burdens on them and potentially disrupt governmental operations. This decision clarified how courts should handle cases where laws are struck down as unconstitutional retrospectively.

In the dissenting opinion for Harper v. Virginia Department of Taxation, Justice Blackmun argued that the Court's decision to apply its ruling retroactively was inappropriate and inconsistent with previous decisions. He contended that applying a new rule retroactively should only occur when it establishes a new principle of law or addresses an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed. In this case, he believed neither condition had been met as the tax exemption at issue did not involve any fundamental unfairness or procedural irregularity which would warrant such retrospective application. Furthermore, he highlighted potential practical problems arising from this approach including disruption to state budgets due to refund claims and administrative burdens on courts dealing with these cases.