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Statutory Interpretation: General Principles
and Recent Trends
Larry M. Eig
Specialist in American Public Law
December 19, 2011
Congressional Research Service
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www.crs.gov
97-589
CRS Report for Congress
Pr
epared for Members and Committees of Congress
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Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends
Summary
The exercise of the judicial power of the United States often requires courts to construe statutes in
applying them in particular cases and controversies. Judicial interpretation of the meaning of a
statute is authoritative in the matter before the court. Beyond this, the methodologies and
approaches taken by the courts in discerning meaning can help guide legislative drafters,
legislators, implementing agencies, and private parties.
The Supreme Court has expressed an interest “that Congress be able to legislate against a
background of clear interpretive rules, so that it may know the effect of the language it adopts.”
To this end, this report reviews the primary rules the Court applies to discern a statute’s meaning,
keeping in mind that there is no unified, systematic approach for unlocking meaning in all cases.
Though schools of statutory interpretation vary on what factors should be considered, all
approaches start (if not necessarily end) with the language and structure of the statute itself. In
analyzing a statute’s text, the Court is guided by the basic principle that a statute should be read
as a harmonious whole, with its separate parts being interpreted within their broader statutory
context.
Still, the meaning of statutory language is not always evident. To help clarify uncertainty, judges
have developed various interpretive tools in the form of canons of construction. Canons broadly
fall into two types. “Language,” or “linguistic,” canons are interpretive “rules of thumb” for
drawing inferences based on customary usage, grammar, and the like. For example, in
considering the meaning of particular words and phrases, language canons call for determining
the sense in which terms are being used, that is, whether words or phrases are meant as terms of
art with specialized meanings or are meant in the ordinary, “dictionary” sense. Other language
canons direct that all words of a statute be given effect if possible, that a term used more than
once in a statute ordinarily be given the same meaning throughout, and that specific statutory
language ordinarily trumps conflicting general language. “Ordinarily” is a necessary caveat, since
any of these “canons” may give way if context points toward a contrary meaning.
Not infrequently the Court stacks the deck, and subordinates the general, linguistic canons of
statutory construction, as well as other interpretive principles, to overarching presumptions that
favor particular substantive results. When one of these “substantive” canons applies, the Court
frequently requires a “clear statement” of congressional intent to negate it. A commonly invoked
“substantive” canon is that Congress does not intend to change judge-made law. Other substantive
canons disfavor preemption of state law and abrogation of state immunity from suit in federal
court. As another example, Congress must strongly signal an intent to the courts if it wishes to
apply a statute retroactively or override existing law. The Court also tries to avoid an
interpretation that would raise serious doubts about a statute’s constitutionality.
Interpretive methods that emphasize the primacy of text and staying within the boundaries of
statutes themselves to discern meaning are “textualist.” Other approaches, including
“intentionalism,” are more open to taking extrinsic considerations into account. Most particularly,
some Justices may be willing to look to legislative history to clarify ambiguous text. This report
briefly reviews what constitutes “legislative history,” including, possibly, presidential signing
statements, and the factors that might lead the Court to consider it.
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Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 1
Statutory Text................................................................................................................................... 3
In General—Statutory Context and Purpose ............................................................................. 3
“Language” Canons of Construction ............................................................................................... 4
In General .................................................................................................................................. 4
Ordinary and Specialized Meaning ........................................................................................... 6
Terms of Art ........................................................................................................................ 6
Ordinary Meaning and Dictionary Definitions ................................................................... 7
And/Or................................................................................................................................. 9
Definite/Indefinite Article ................................................................................................... 9
Shall/May ............................................................................................................................ 9
Singular/Plural................................................................................................................... 10
General, Specific, and Associated Words ................................................................................ 10
Grammatical Rules, Punctuation ............................................................................................. 12
Statutory Language Not to be Construed as “Mere Surplusage”............................................. 13
Same Phrasing in Same or Related Statutes ............................................................................ 14
Different Phrasings in Same Statute........................................................................................ 15
“Congress Knows How to Say ...”........................................................................................... 16
Statutory Silence...................................................................................................................... 17
De Minimis Principle .............................................................................................................. 18
“Substantive” Canons of Construction .......................................................................................... 18
Departure from Common Law or Established Interpretation .................................................. 19
Preempting State Law, Impinging on State Operations........................................................... 20
Abrogation of States’ Eleventh Amendment Immunity........................................................... 21
Nationwide Application of Federal Law ................................................................................. 22
Waiver of Sovereign Immunity ............................................................................................... 22
Non-retroactivity/Effective Date ............................................................................................. 22
Avoidance of Constitutional Issues ......................................................................................... 23
Extraterritorial Application Disfavored ................................................................................... 24
Judicial Review of Administrative Action............................................................................... 24
Deference to Administrative Interpretation ............................................................................. 25
Repeals by Implication ............................................................................................................ 29
Laws of the Same Session................................................................................................. 30
Appropriations Laws......................................................................................................... 30
Rule of Lenity.......................................................................................................................... 30
Scienter.................................................................................................................................... 31
Remedial Statutes .................................................................................................................... 32
Statutes Benefitting Indian Tribes ........................................................................................... 33
Miscellany...................................................................................................................................... 33
Titles of Acts or Sections......................................................................................................... 33
Preambles (“Whereas Clauses”).............................................................................................. 34
Findings and Purposes Sections .............................................................................................. 34
“Sense of Congress” Provisions .............................................................................................. 35
Savings Clauses ....................................................................................................................... 35
“Notwithstanding Any Other Provision of Law”..................................................................... 37
Implied Private Right of Action............................................................................................... 38
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Incorporation by Reference ..................................................................................................... 39
Severability.............................................................................................................................. 39
Deadlines for Administrative Action ....................................................................................... 40
“Jurisdictional” Rules.............................................................................................................. 41
Legislative History......................................................................................................................... 41
Plain Meaning Rule ................................................................................................................. 41
Uses of Legislative History ..................................................................................................... 43
Inferences Based on “Subsequent” Legislative History .......................................................... 47
Subsequent Legislation ..................................................................................................... 48
Reenactment...................................................................................................................... 49
Acquiescence..................................................................................................................... 49
“Isolated Statements” ........................................................................................................ 50
Presidential Signing Statements .............................................................................................. 51
Contacts
Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 53
Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... 53
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Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends
Introduction
Article I, section 1 of the Constitution vests all federal legislative power in Congress, while
Article I, section 7 sets forth the process for effectuating this power through passage of legislation
by both Houses and either presidential approval or veto override. The exercise of the judicial
power of the United States often requires that courts construe statutes so enacted to apply them in
concrete cases and controversies. Judicial interpretation of a statute is authoritative in the matter
before the court, and may guide courts in future cases. Beyond this, the methodologies and
approaches taken by the courts in interpreting meaning also can help guide legislative drafters,
legislators, implementing agencies, and private parties on how a statute may ultimately be
construed.1
This report provides an overview of how the Supreme Court interprets statutes, with particular
emphasis on rules and conventions that focus on the text itself.2 That is, to inform Congress on
how the Court might go about analyzing the meaning of particular legislative language, this
report emphasizes “textualist”-based means of interpretation. “Textualism” considers the “law” to
be embodied in the language of the statute, as expressed in its “plain meaning,” which can be
discerned through the aid, as necessary, of various judicially developed rules of interpretation.3
This report also briefly discusses “intentionalist”-based means of interpretation and the Court’s
approach toward relying on legislative history and other extrinsic considerations. This report is
not intended as an examination of all schools of judicial decision-making, nor as an analysis of
the merits or limits of the many methodologies used by courts in applying statutes in specific
cases.4 In this regard, even though textualism may be the primary approach toward interpreting
statutes, individual Supreme Court opinions often employ multiple types of statutory analysis to
1 Though different actors in the political and legal processes share an interest in “what a statute means,” they can come
to the issue in different contexts and with different concerns. Often, the question may not be one of what is the “best”
interpretation of particular legislative language. For example, as legislation is deliberated and compromises are struck,
legislators may be concerned with what substantive and regulatory “gaps” are being created, who likely will fill them
(e.g., executive agencies or the courts) and in accordance with what standards, and what the prospects are that the
legislature will revisit an issue because of how a statute is implemented or interpreted. Similarly, an implementing
agency may see silence or ambiguity in a statute as an implicit delegation of broad regulatory powers. Private parties
may be primarily concerned with assessing what options they have to act. The pertinent query in many instances might
be whether a particular interpretation is “reasonable,” not whether it is the “best.” For one leading commentator’s view
on compromise as part of the legislative process and why courts should be cautious in “filling in the blanks” left open
by a legislature, see Frank H. Easterbrook, Statutes’ Domains, 50 U. CHI. L. REV. 533, 540-42 (1983).
2 In places, the report also refers to opinions of United States courts of appeals and scholarly discussion of statutory
interpretation generally.
3 It is sometimes disputed whether the rules characterized as “substantive” canons of construction in this report, and
also variously as “overarching presumptions” or “normative canons,” properly fit within “textualism,” which most
often is associated with the linguistic, or “language,” canons.
4 There is an extensive body of legal literature on statutory interpretation by the courts. A small sampling includes
James J. Brudney & Corey Ditslear, The Warp and Woof of Statutory Interpretation: Comparing Supreme Court
Approaches in Tax Law and Workplace Law, 58 DUKE L.J. 1231 (2009); Alexander Volokh, Choosing Interpretive
Methods: A Positive Theory of Judges and Everyone Else, 83 N.Y.U. L. REV. 769 (2008); David L. Shapiro, Continuity
and Change in Statutory Interpretation, 67 N.Y.U. L. REV. 921 (1992); Cass R. Sunstein, Interpreting Statutes in the
Regulatory State, 103 HARV. L. REV. 405 (1989); William N. Eskridge, Jr., Dynamic Statutory Interpretation, 135 U.
PA. L. REV. 1479 (1987). See also Symposium, A Reevaluation of the Canons of Statutory Interpretation, 45 VAND. L.
REV. 529 (1992). Methods of interpretation other than textualism and intentionalism, such as “pragmatism,”
“purposivism,” and “practical reasoning,” generally are more open to considering the functional effects of a particular
decision, changed circumstances since a statute’s enactment and how the current Congress might view an issue, and the
broad aims of Congress in passing a specific law.
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support their conclusions and critique majority/dissenting opinions with which they do not agree.5
Moreover, as general approaches for inferring meaning, neither textualism nor intentionalism is
rigidly mechanistic or limited to the action of the enacting Congress, with “textualists,” for
example, sometimes looking to broader legal contexts and “intentionalists” at times venturing
beyond the enacting Congress’s particular intent to preserve a statute’s purposes.6
When reading statutory text, the Supreme Court uses content-neutral canons developed by the
judiciary that focus on word usage, grammar, syntax and the like. Sometimes, the Court also
brings to bear various presumptions that reflect broader judicial concerns and can more directly
favor particular substantive results. Other conventions assist the Court in determining whether to
go beyond the corners of a statute and judicial-based rules of interpretation to also consider the
congressional deliberations that led to a statute’s passage. Although there is some overlap and
inconsistency among these rules and conventions, and although the Court’s pathway through the
mix is often not clearly foreseeable, an understanding of interpretational possibilities may
nonetheless aid Congress in choosing among various drafting options. To this end, the Court has
expressed an interest “that Congress be able to legislate against a background of clear interpretive
rules, so that it may know the effect of the language it adopts.”7
Of course, Congress can always amend a statute to supersede the reading given it by the Court. In
interpreting statutes, the Court recognizes that legislative power resides in Congress, and that
Congress can legislate away interpretations with which it disagrees.8 Congress has revisited
5 See, e.g., Frank B. Cross, The Significance of Statutory Interpretive Methodologies, 82 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1971
(2007). Even when the Court is unified, and its opinion relatively brief, the Court commonly rests its interpretations on
multiple, mutually reinforcing grounds. E.g., Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. ___, No. 08-911 (Jan. 20, 2010).
6 See Anita S. Krishnakumar, Statutory Interpretation in the Roberts Court’s First Era: An Empirical and Doctrinal
Analysis, 62 HASTINGS L.J. 221 (2010-2011).
7 Finley v. United States, 490 U.S. 545, 556 (1989). As is evident from this report, many of the interpretive challenges
faced by the Court arise from lack of completeness and specificity. In this regard, Executive Order 12988, which in part
provides guidance to agencies in drafting proposed legislation for possible congressional consideration, directs agencies
to “make every reasonable effort to ensure” that proposed legislation, “as appropriate ... specifies in clear language”—
(A) whether causes of action arising under the law are subject to statutes of limitations; (B) its preemptive effect; (C)
the effect on existing Federal law; (D) a clear legal standard for affected conduct; (E) whether arbitration and other
forms of dispute resolution are appropriate; (F) whether the provisions of the law are severable if one or more is held
unconstitutional; (G) the retroactive effect, if any; (H) the applicable burdens of proof; (I) whether private parties are
granted a right to sue, and, if so, what relief is available and whether attorney’s fees are available; (J) whether state
courts have jurisdiction; (K) whether administrative remedies must be pursued prior to initiating court actions; (L)
standards governing personal jurisdiction; (M) definitions of key statutory terms; (N) applicability to the Federal
Government; (O) applicability to states, territories, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico
and the Northern Mariana Islands; and (P) what remedies are available, “such as money damages, civil penalties,
injunctive relief, and attorney’s fees.” 61 Fed. Reg. 4729 (February 5, 1996), reprinted in 28 U.S.C. §519. Many items
in this list are addressed in this report because statutes have lacked clear guidance on them.
However, it would be a mistake to conclude that all “lapses” of completeness and specificity result from oversights. As
observed by Frank H. Easterbrook, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in an
article written in 1983: “Almost all statutes are compromises, and the cornerstone of many a compromise is the
decision, usually unexpressed, to leave certain issues unresolved.... What matters to the compromisers is reducing the
chance that their work will be invoked subsequently to achieve more, or less, than they intended, thereby upsetting the
balance of the package.” Frank H. Easterbrook, Statutes’ Domains, 50 U. CHI. L. REV. 533, 540 (1983).
8 It is because “Congress is free to change this Court’s interpretation of its legislation,” that the Court adheres more
strictly to the doctrine of stare decisis, or adherence to judicial precedents, in the area of statutory construction than in
the area of constitutional interpretation, where amendment is much more difficult. Neal v. United States, 516 U.S. 284,
295 (1996) (quoting Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, 431 U.S. 720, 736 (1977)); Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 23
(2005). “Stare decisis is usually the wise policy [for statutes], because in most matters it is more important that the
applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right.” Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393, 406
(continued...)
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statutory issues fairly frequently to override or counter the Court’s interpretations.9 Corrective
amendment can be a lengthy and uncertain process, however.10
Statutory Text
In General—Statutory Context and Purpose
The starting point in construing a statute is the language of the statute itself. The Supreme Court
often recites the “plain meaning rule,” that, if the language of the statute is plain and
unambiguous, it must be applied according to its terms. There is no single test to assay the clarity
of statutory language. A narrow focus on the meaning of particular words and phrases is the
frequent starting point. This view is commonly supplemented by perspectives provided from
elsewhere within the statute. How has Congress used or distinguished the same terms in other
places in the statute? How does the section in which language at issue appears fit within the
statute’s structure? What do the structure and language of a statute reveal about the statute’s
overall purposes?
The primacy of text in statutory analysis would appear to marginalize whatever insight legislative
history or other extrinsic aids might provide. The strictures of a text-based “plain meaning rule”
were once thought honored more in the breach than in the observance. However, this perception
has changed: More often than before, statutory text is thought to be the ending point as well as the
starting point for interpretation.11
Under text-based analysis, the cardinal rule of construction is that the whole statute should be
drawn upon as necessary, with its various parts being interpreted within their broader statutory
context in a manner that furthers statutory purposes. Justice Scalia, who has been in the vanguard
of efforts to redirect statutory construction toward statutory text and away from legislative
history, has aptly characterized this general approach. “Statutory construction ... is a holistic
endeavor. A provision that may seem ambiguous in isolation is often clarified by the remainder of
the statutory scheme—because the same terminology is used elsewhere in a context that makes its
meaning clear, or because only one of the permissible meanings produces a substantive effect that
(...continued)
(1932) (Justice Brandeis, dissenting). See also, e.g., CSX Transportation, Inc. v. McBride, 564 U.S. ___, No. 10-235,
slip op. at 5, 10 n.4, 12-13 (June 23, 2011) (Ginsburg, J., for the Court).
9 One scholar identified 187 override statutes from 1967 to 1990. William N. Eskridge, Overriding Supreme Court
Statutory Interpretation Decisions, 101 YALE L.J. 331 (1991). See also Deborah A. Widiss, Shadow Precedents and the
Separation of Powers, 84 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 511 (2009). One prominent override addressed the Supreme Court
decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. (550 U.S. 618 (2007)), which held that a plaintiff had failed
to file a timely suit for past sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Congress superseded the
decision in the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which amended Title VII to clarify the time limit to sue employers
in a way that did not foreclose a suit of the type Ms. Ledbetter brought. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, P.L. 111-
2, 123 Stat. 5 (2009).
10 The extent and intended effect of overrides vary, and courts may not always give an override the breadth of
application Congress desired. Deborah A. Widiss, Shadow Precedents and the Separation of Powers, 84 NOTRE DAME
L. REV. 511 (2008).
11 For an example of an empirical study finding decreased reliance on legislative history by the Supreme Court from
1969 to 2008, see James J. Brudney & Corey Ditslear, The Warp and Woof of Statutory Interpretation: Comparing
Supreme Court Approaches in Tax Law and Workplace Law, 58 DUKE L.J. 1231, 1258 (2009).
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is compatible with the rest of the law.”12 In 1850 Chief Justice Taney described the same process:
“In expounding a statute, we must not be guided by a single sentence or member of a sentence,
but look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy.”13 Thus, the meaning of a
specific statutory directive may be shaped, for example, by that statute’s definitions of terms, by
the statute’s statement of findings and purposes, by the directive’s relationship to other specific
directives, by purposes inferred from those directives or from the statute as a whole, and by the
statute’s overall structure. Beyond this, courts also may look to the broader body of law into
which the enactment fits.14
The Supreme Court often cites general rules, or canons, of construction in resolving statutory
meaning. The Court, moreover, presumes “that Congress legislates with knowledge of our basic
rules of statutory construction.”15 It is well to keep in mind, however, that the overriding objective
of statutory construction has been to effectuate statutory purpose as expressed in a law’s text. As
Justice Jackson put it 68 years ago, “[h]owever well these rules may serve at times to decipher
legislative intent, they long have been subordinated to the doctrine that courts will construe the
details of an act in conformity with its dominating general purpose, will read text in the light of
context and will interpret the text so far as the meaning of the words fairly permits so as to carry
out in particular cases the generally expressed legislative policy.”16
“Language” Canons of Construction
In General
The “language” canons of construction are neutral, analytical guides for discerning the meaning
of particular text that might otherwise appear unclear.17 That is to say, these canons are based on
general linguistic principles, many of them of the common-sense variety, for drawing inferences
about the meaning of language. The meaning of a word or phrase can be shaped by its ordinary or
12 United Savings Ass’n v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, 484 U.S. 365, 371 (1988) (citations omitted).
13 United States v. Boisdoré’s Heirs, 49 U.S. (8 How.) 113, 122 (1850). For a modern example of examining statutory
language “in place,” see Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Atchison, T. & S.F.R.R., 516 U.S. 152, 157 (1996)
(purpose of Hours of Service Act, to promote safety by ensuring that fatigued employees do not operate trains, guides
the determination of whether employees’ time is “on duty”).
14 Green v. Bock Laundry Machine Co., 490 U.S. 504, 528 (1990).
15 McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, 498 U.S. 479, 496 (1991) (referring to presumption favoring judicial review of
administrative action). See also United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 463 n.9 (1988) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (Court
presumes that “Congress is aware of this longstanding presumption [disfavoring repeals by implication] and that
Congress relies on it in drafting legislation.”).
16 SEC v. Joiner, 320 U.S. 344, 350-51 (1943). Justice Jackson explained that some of the canons derived “from
sources that were hostile toward the legislative process itself,” and that viewed legislation as “‘interference’” with the
common law “‘process of intelligent judicial administration.’” 320 U.S. at 350 & n.7 (quoting the first edition of
SUTHERLAND, STATUTES AND STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION). A more recent instance of congressional purpose and
statutory context trumping a “canon” occurred in General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline, 540 U.S. 581, 594-
599 (2004), the Court there determining that the word “age” is used in different senses in different parts of the Age
Discrimination in Employment Act, and consequently the presumption of uniform usage throughout a statute should
not be followed.
17 This report separately addresses “substantive” canons of construction, which often are referred to as “normative”
canons or “overarching presumptions.” Unlike the linguistic rules that are the “language” canons, the substantive
canons derive from broader judicial notions of constitutionalism, federalism, effective judicial administration, and other
policy concerns of the courts. Unless they are rebutted, these presumptions can favor particular outcomes.
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specialized meaning, its context in the statute, the usage of similar terms in the statute, the
statute’s structure, and other factors. The language canons are “axioms of experience,” but none
“preclude[s] consideration of persuasive [contrary] evidence if it exists.”18 Each canon provides
its own perspective, and different takes from different views can give different insights into the
meaning of what is being observed. Considering and weighing the value of various views would
appear to be a sound process for ensuring well-reasoned interpretations. However, the language
canons are intrinsic aids only, not “rules of law.” Discerning what Congress probably meant by
particular language for the purpose of applying it to a particular set of facts can be a difficult
judicial exercise that is not amenable to formulaic resolution.
The sheer number and variety of canons have been cited to emphasize their limited utility as a
stand-alone method of statutory construction. Still influential, for example, is a 1950 article by
Professor Karl Llewellyn that lists many canons (both language canons and substantive canons)
juxtaposed to equally “correct” but opposing canons.19 Professor Llewellyn’s main point was to
argue that judges should take current circumstances into account in applying a statute in a case—
he was critical of the impression that “formalism” gave of there being “only one single correct
answer possible” in reading text. Nevertheless, many have broadened his message into a charge
that canons are mere pretext because judges may pick and choose among them to achieve
whatever result they desire.
However, accepting that there may be more than one “correct” answer in resolving the meaning
of a statutory provision—a premise that seems unremarkable in many cases at the Supreme Court
level20—does not necessarily mean that a Court majority begins with a preferred policy outcome
and then marshals only those canons that support it. Given an array of established templates to
guide interpretation, one may be a particularly apt fit in a given case, and the case’s outcome will
in large measure be driven by the rationale of the canon applied. This might particularly be so
when a substantive canon of interpretation (e.g., avoidance of constitutional issues) is in play.
(These canons are discussed below.)
In any event, one possible suggestion of the indeterminacy of canons is that statutory construction
should be a narrow pursuit, not a broader one:
[C]anons of construction are no more than rules of thumb that help courts determine the
meaning of legislation, and in interpreting a statute a court should always turn first to one,
cardinal canon before all others.... [C]ourts must presume that a legislature says in a statute
what it means and means in a statute what it says there. When the words of a statute are
unambiguous, then, this first canon is also the last: “judicial inquiry is complete.”21
18 Boston Sand & Gravel Co. v. United States, 278 U.S. 41, 48 (1928) (Holmes, J., for Court).
19 Karl Llewellyn, Remarks on the Theory of Appellate Decision and the Rules or Canons About How Statutes Are To
Be Construed, 3 VAND. L. REV. 395 (1950).
20 “As is true with most of the statutory interpretation questions that come before this Court, the question in this case is
not like a jigsaw puzzle. There is simply no perfect solution to the problem before us.” Corley v. United States, 556
U.S. ___, No. 07-10441, slip op. at 4 (April 6, 2009) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
21 Connecticut Nat’l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-54 (1992) (citations omitted). The Court takes much the same
approach when it chooses congressional intent rather than statutory text as its touchstone: a canon of construction
should not be followed “when application would be tantamount to a formalistic disregard of congressional intent.” Rice
v. Rehner, 463 U.S. 713, 732 (1983).
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Ordinary and Specialized Meaning
Determining how a statute is to be applied often comes down to considering what a particular
word or phrase means as used in the statute. In this exercise, a threshold inquiry is whether
language is being used in the “ordinary,” “general dictionary” sense or in a narrower, specialized
sense or as a term of art.22 Also, the appropriate reference is what a term meant to Members when
Congress passed the statute, not its meaning at the time the statute is being adjudicated.23
Terms of Art
If the word or phrase is defined in the statute (federal statutes frequently collect definitions in a
“definitions” section), or elsewhere in the United States Code,24 then that definition governs if
applicable in the context used.25 Even if the word or phrase is not defined by statute, it may have
an accepted meaning in the area of law addressed by the statute,26 it may have been borrowed
22 On occasion, disagreement within a sharply divided Court plays out over whether a term is being used in a
specialized sense or in accordance with ordinary meaning. See, e.g., Sullivan v. Stroop, 496 U.S. 478 (1990) (five-
Justice majority holding that “child support” in the AFDC statute is restricted to that term’s specialized use in the Child
Support program under the Social Security Act, while four-Justice minority argues that “child support” in the AFDC
statute has a broader, common use meaning). See also Bruesewitz v. Wyeth LLC 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-152, slip op. at
9-10 (February 22, 2011) and Bruesewitz, slip op. at 7-9 (Sotomayor, J., dissenting). At other times, a unanimous Court
has interpreted what might appear to be a term of art by its ordinary meaning. See Wall v. Kholi, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-
868 (March 7, 2011) (meaning of “collateral review” in habeas corpus statute analyzed by separate examination of the
ordinary dictionary meanings of “collateral” and “review”).
23 Saint Francis College v. Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604 (1987). The Court there held that a citizen of Arab ancestry could
bring an action under 42 U.S.C. §1981, which gives to all persons certain rights to the extent they are enjoyed by
“white citizens”: “Plainly, all those who might be deemed Caucasian today were not thought to be of the same race at
the time § 1981 became law [in the 19th century].” Id. at 610. See also, e.g., Cuomo v. Clearing House Assn., L.L.C.,
557 U.S. ___, No. 08-453, slip op. (June 29, 2009), where the ability of a state to take certain enforcement actions
against national banks depended on the meaning of “visitorial powers” when the National Bank Act was enacted in
1864.
24 The Dictionary Act, ch. 388, 61 Stat. 633 (1947), as amended, 1 U.S.C. §§1-6, has definitions of a few common
terms used in federal statutes (e.g., “person,” “vessel,” and “vehicle”). These definitions govern in all federal statutes
“unless the context indicates otherwise.” See also Stewart v. Dutra Constr. Co., 543 U.S. 481, 489 (2005) (relying on
Dictionary Act’s definition of “vessel”).
That a word is defined in statute does not necessarily mean, however, that other forms of the word are bound by the
definition. Thus, a statutory definition of “person” to include corporations did not govern whether “personal” privacy
under the statute covered corporations, and not individuals only: “[I]n ordinary usage, a noun and its adjective form
may have meanings as disparate as any two unrelated words.” F.C.C. v. AT&T, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-1279, slip op. at
5 (March 1, 2011) (using “crab” and “crabbed” as an example).
25 Colautti v. Franklin, 439 U.S. 379, 392 (1979). If the context indicates otherwise, i.e., if a mechanical application of
a statutory definition throughout a statute would create an “obvious incongruity” or frustrate an evident statutory
purpose for a particular provision, then it is permissible to depart from the definition. Lawson v. Suwannee S.S. Co.,
336 U.S. 198, 201 (1949); Rowland v. California Men’s Colony, 506 U.S. 194 (1993) (context indicates otherwise; the
term “person” as used in 28 U.S.C. §1915(a) refers only to individuals and does not carry its Dictionary Act definition,
which includes associations and artificial entities). But, as noted below, a term appearing in several places in a statute is
ordinarily interpreted as having the same meaning each time it appears.
26 See, e.g., Sullivan v. Stroop, 496 U.S. 478, 483 (1990) (five-Justice majority holding that “child support” in the
AFDC statute is restricted to that term’s specialized use in the Child Support program under the Social Security Act).
Note also that “where a phrase in a statute appears to have become a term of art ..., any attempt to break down the term
into its constituent words is not apt to illuminate its meaning.” Id. But see Wall v. Kholi, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-868
(March 7, 2011) (meaning of “collateral review” in habeas corpus statute analyzed by separate examination of the
ordinary dictionary meanings of “collateral” and “review”).
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from another statute under which it had an accepted meaning,27 or it may have had an accepted
and specialized meaning at common law.28 In each of these situations the accepted meaning
governs29 and the word or phrase is considered a technical term or “term of art.” Justice Jackson
explained why this reliance is appropriate:
[W]here Congress borrows terms of art in which are accumulated the legal tradition and
meaning of centuries of practice, it presumably knows and adopts the cluster of ideas that
were attached to each borrowed word in the body of learning from which it was taken and
the meaning its use will convey to the judicial mind unless otherwise instructed. In such a
case, absence of contrary direction may be taken as satisfaction with widely accepted
definitions, not as departure from them.30
Ordinary Meaning and Dictionary Definitions
Words that are not terms of art and that are not statutorily defined are customarily given their
ordinary meanings, frequently derived from the dictionary.31 Thus, the Court has relied on regular
dictionary definitions to interpret the word “marketing” as used in the Plant Variety Protection
Act,32 and the word “principal” as used to modify a taxpayer’s place of business for purposes of
an income tax deduction,33 and relied on Black’s Law Dictionary for the meaning of the word
“cognizable” as used in the Federal Tort Claims Act to identify certain causes of action.34
Of course application of dictionary definitions is not always a clear course;35 many words have
several alternative meanings, and context must guide choice among them, where possible.36
27 In appropriate circumstances, courts will assume that “adoption of the wording of a statute from another legislative
jurisdiction carries with it the previous judicial interpretations of the wording.” Carolene Products Co. v. United States,
323 U.S. 18, 26 (1944) (finding, however, that circumstances were inappropriate for reliance on the principle). For the
presumption to operate, the previous judicial interpretations must have been “known and settled.” Capital Traction Co.
v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1, 36 (1899). See also Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 310 (1957) (in the absence of legislative
history indicating that decisions of lower state courts were called to Congress’s attention, Court “should not assume
that Congress was aware of them”). Variations in statutory wording may also refute the suggestion that Congress
borrowed an interpretation. Shannon v. United States, 512 U.S. 573, 581 (1994) (Congress did not borrow the terms of
the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 from the District of Columbia Code.).
28 See, e.g., Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 739-40 (1989) (relying on traditional
common law agency principles for meaning of term “employee”). See also Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Darden, 503
U.S. 318, 323 (1992) (following the same course after finding ERISA’s “circular” definition of “employee” to be
wanting); Clackamas Gastroenterology Assocs., P.C. v. Wells, 538 U.S. 440, 444 (2003) (same construction of
similarly “circular” definition of “employee” in ADA).
29 “[W]here a common law principle is well established, ... the courts may take it as a given that Congress has legislated
with an expectation that the principle will apply except ‘when a statutory purpose to the contrary is evident.’” Astoria
Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n v. Solimino, 501 U.S. 104, 108 (1991) (quoting Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson, 343 U.S.
779, 783 (1952)).
30 Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 263 (1952).
31 In the absence of a statutory definition, “we construe a statutory term in accordance with its ordinary or natural
meaning.” FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. 471, 476 (1994).
32 Asgrow Seed Co. v. Winterboer, 513 U.S. 179, 187 (1995).
33 Commissioner v. Soliman, 506 U.S. 168, 174 (1993).
34 FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. 471, 476 (1994).
35 See Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 564 U.S. ___, No. 09-525, slip op. (June 13, 2011), where
a five-Justice majority cites the ordinary dictionary meaning of “make” to narrowly interpret “mak[ing] a statement”
under SEC Rule 10b-5, and the four-Justice dissent, without dictionary citation and using “everyday” examples,
characterizes the majority’s interpretation as too restrictive.
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However, “[a]mbiguity is a creature not of definitional possibilities but of statutory context.”37
Consider two cases in which context did not clearly point to whether a term was to be given its
broadest dictionary meaning or was to be construed narrowly according to “common
understanding.” In one case, the Supreme Court concluded that “use of a firearm” in the
commission of a drug offense or crime of violence included trading a gun for drugs; that is, “use
of a firearm” was not confined to its use as a weapon.38 This conclusion may be compared to a
finding that purchasing drugs over a cell phone did not constitute the felony of “facilitating” drug
trafficking through a communication device: “[S]tatutes are not read as a collection of isolated
phrases ... ‘A word in a statute may or may not extend to the outer limits of its definitional
possibilities.’ We think the word here does not.”39 In close cases such as these, the Court may go
beyond the words of a statute for guidance and look to the statute’s broader purpose or its fit with
other laws.40 As Judge Learned Hand observed, “it is one of the surest indexes of a mature and
developed jurisprudence not to make a fortress out of the dictionary; but to remember that statutes
always have some purpose or object to accomplish, whose sympathetic and imaginative discovery
is the surest guide to their meaning.”41
(...continued)
36 See, e.g., MCI Tel. Corp. v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 512 U.S. 218, 226-28 (1994) (FCC’s authority to “modify”
requirements does not include the authority to make tariff filing optional; aberrant dictionary meaning “to make a basic
or important change” is antithetical to the principal meaning of incremental change and more than the statute can bear);
and Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, 541 U.S. 125 (2004) (preemption of state laws that prohibit “any entity”
from providing telecommunications service means, in context, “any private entity,” and does not preempt a state law
prohibiting local governments from providing such services). If the court views the issue as one of deference to an
administrative interpretation, then the agency’s choice of one dictionary definition over another may indicate sufficient
“reasonableness.” Smiley v. Citibank (South Dakota), 517 U.S. 735, 744-47 (1996). See also Kasten v. Saint-Gobain
Performance Plastics Corp., 563 U.S. ___, No. 09-834, slip op. (March 22, 2011) (holding that “filing” a complaint
included complaints made orally).
37 Brown v. Gardner, 513 U.S. 115, 118 (1994).
38 Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223 (1993). Dissenting, Justice Scalia argued for a narrower reading: “[To] use an
instrumentality normally means to use it for its intended purpose. When someone asks ‘Do you use a cane?’ he is not
inquiring whether you have your grandfather’s silver-handled walking-stick on display in the hall; he wants to know
whether you walk with a cane. Similarly, to speak of ‘using a firearm’ is to speak of using it for its distinctive purpose,
i.e., as a weapon.” Id. at 242. The Court had less difficulty with the provision in 1995, overruling a lower court’s
holding that proximity and accessibility of a firearm are alone sufficient to establish “use.” Bailey v. United States, 516
U.S. 137 (1995) (driving car with gun located in bag in car’s trunk does not constitute “use” of gun; person who sold
drugs after retrieving them from room in which gun was found in a locked trunk in a closet did not “use” that gun in
sale). The Bailey Court, however, defined “use” in such a way (“active employment”) as to leave the Smith holding
intact. See also Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125 (1998) (holding that the companion phrase “carries a
firearm,” found in the same statutory provision, is a broader category that includes transporting drugs with a handgun
locked in the glove compartment of a vehicle).
39 Abuelhawa v. United States, 556 U.S. ___, No. 08-192, slip op. at 3 (May 26, 2009) (quoting Dolan v. Postal
Service, 546 U.S. 481, 486 (2006)).
40 The majority in Smith, which construed “use of a firearm” broadly, stated there was a general understanding that
drugs and firearms are a dangerous combination and saw no reason why Congress would want to distinguish use of a
firearm as a weapon in a drug crime from use of a firearm in barter in a drug crime; according to the majority, both
circumstances involved a grave possibility of violence and death. 508 U.S. at 240. The unanimous Court in Abuelhawa,
which construed “facilitate” narrowly, stated that a broad reading (which would have led to higher criminal penalties)
could be inconsistent with the gradation of similar and more serious offenses. Slip op. at 5-8.
41 Cabell v. Markham, 148 F.2d 737, 739 (2d Cir. 1945). Justice Stevens expressed a preference for established
interpretation over dictionary definitions. “In a contest between the dictionary and the doctrine of stare decisis, the
latter clearly wins.” Hibbs v. Winn, 542 U.S. 88, 113 (2004) (Stevens, J., concurring).
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And/Or
Ordinarily, as in everyday English, use of the conjunctive “and” in a list means that all of the
listed requirements must be satisfied,42 while use of the disjunctive “or” means that only one of
the listed requirements need be satisfied.43 Courts do not apply these meanings “inexorably,”
however; if a “strict grammatical construction” will frustrate evident legislative intent, a court
may read “and” as “or,” or “or” as “and.”44 Moreover, statutory context can render the distinction
secondary.45
Definite/Indefinite Article
As in common usage, a drafter’s choice between the definite and indefinite article can affect
meaning. “The definite article ‘the’ particularizes the subject which it precedes. It is a word of
limitation as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of ‘a’ or ‘an.’”46
Shall/May
Use of “shall” and “may” in statutes also mirrors common usage; ordinarily “shall” is mandatory
and “may” is permissive.47 These words must be read in their broader statutory context, however,
the issue often being whether the statutory directive itself is mandatory or permissive.48 Use of
42 See, e.g., Pueblo of Santa Ana v. Kelly, 932 F. Supp. 1284, 1292 (D. N. Mex. 1996).
43 See, e.g., Zorich v. Long Beach Fire and Ambulance Serv., 118 F.3d 682, 684 (9th Cir. 1997); United States v.
O’Driscoll, 761 F.2d 589, 597-98 (10th Cir. 1985). A corollary is that use of the disjunctive “or” creates “mutually
exclusive” conditions that can rule out mixing and matching. United States v. Williams, 326 F.3d 535, 541 (4th Cir.
2003) (“A crime may qualify as a serious drug offense by meeting all the requirements of (i) or all the requirements of
(ii), but not some of the requirements of (i) and some of (ii).”).
44 See, e.g., United States v. Moore, 613 F.2d 1029 (D.C. Cir. 1979); De Sylva v. Ballentine, 351 U.S. 570, 573 (1956)
(“[T]he word ‘or’ is often used as a careless substitute for the word ‘and.’”). Both “and” and “or” are context-
dependent, and each word “is itself semantically ambiguous, and can be used in two quite different senses.” LAWRENCE
E. FILSON, THE LEGISLATIVE DRAFTER’S DESK REFERENCE, §21.10 (1992).
45 See, e.g., United States v. 141st St. Corp., 911 F.2d 870 (2d Cir. 1990) (holding that an affirmative defense to
forfeiture of real property used in a drug offense, applicable if the offense was committed “without the knowledge or
consent” of the property owner, applies if the property owner had knowledge of the crime, did not consent, and took all
reasonable steps to prevent illicit use of his property).
46 American Bus Ass’n v. Slater, 231 F.3d 1, 4-5 (D.C. Cir. 2000). See also Reid v. Angelone, 369 F.3d 363, 367 (4th
Cir. 2004) (“Because Congress used the definite article ‘the,’ we conclude that ... there is only one order subject to the
requirements.”); Warner-Lambert Corp. v. Apotex Corp., 316 F.3d 1348, 1356 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (reference to “the” use
of a drug is a reference to an FDA-approved use, not to “a” use or “any” use); Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U.S. 868,
902 (1991) (Scalia, J., concurring) (contending that use of the definite article in the Constitution’s conferral of
appointment authority on “the Courts of Law” “obviously narrows the class of eligible ‘Courts of Law’ to those courts
of law envisioned by the Constitution”). But cf. Sprietsma v. Mercury Marine, 537 U.S. 51, 63 (2002) (reference in a
preemption clause to “a law or regulation” “implies a discreteness—which is embodied in statutes and regulations—
that is not present in the common law”).
47 “The mandatory ‘shall’ ... normally creates an obligation impervious to judicial discretion.” Lexecon, Inc. v. Milberg
Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U.S. 26, 35 (1998). “The use of a permissive verb—‘may review’ instead of ‘shall
review’—suggests a discretionary rather than mandatory review process.” Rastelli v. Warden, Metro. Correctional
Center, 782 F.2d 17, 23 (2d Cir. 1986). “Should” sometimes is substituted for “may” as a permissive word. Union Elec.
Co. v. Consolidation Coal Co., 188 F.3d 998, 1001 (8th Cir. 1999). “Will” and “must” can be additional mandatory
words. Bankers Ins. Co. v. Florida Res. Prop. & Cas. Jt. Underwriting Ass’n, 137 F.3d 1293, 1298 (11th Cir. 1998).
48 See IA SUTHERLAND, STATUTES AND STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION §25:4 (Norman J. Singer ed., 6th ed. 2002 rev.).
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both words in the same provision can underscore their different meanings,49 and often the context
will confirm that the ordinary meaning of one or the other was intended.50 Occasionally, however,
context will trump ordinary meaning.51
Singular/Plural
An elementary rule of statutory construction is that the singular includes the plural, and vice-
versa.52 Thus, a statutory directive that the Secretary of Transportation require automakers to
install a warning system in new cars to alert drivers “when a tire is significantly under-inflated” is
not satisfied by a system that fails to warn when two tires on the same side, or all four tires, are
significantly under-inflated.53
General, Specific, and Associated Words
Ordinarily, the specific terms of a statute override the general terms. “However inclusive may be
the general language of a statute, it will not be held to apply to a matter specifically dealt with in
another part of the same enactment.”54 In one case citing this canon, the Court examined whether
time granted to a defendant to prepare pretrial motions extended the Speedy Trial Act’s deadline
for the government to begin a trial. The act directed that the clock stop for “[a]ny period of delay
resulting from other proceedings concerning the defendant, including but not limited to ... (D)
delay resulting from any pretrial motion, from the filing of the motion through conclusion....” The
Court held that this directive could not include time expended preparing motions: despite “delays
from other proceedings” not being limited to those contained in a list of illustrative
subparagraphs, the specific language in subparagraph (D) on delays due to pretrial motions,
beginning with their being filed, left no room for delays related to pretrial motions prior to their
being filed.55 As with other canons, context is critical.56
Another interpretational guide used from time to time is the principle noscitur a sociis, that
“words grouped in a list should be given related meaning.”57 Thus, a tax provision that
49 See, e.g., Lopez v. Davis, 531 U.S. 230, 241 (2001) (“Congress’ use of the permissive ‘may’ ... contrasts with the
legislators’ use of a mandatory ‘shall’ in the very same section.”); and United States ex rel. Siegel v. Thoman, 156 U.S.
353, 359-60 (1895) (“In the law to be construed here it is evident that the word ‘may’ is used in special
contradistinction to the word ‘shall.’”).
50 See, e.g., Escoe v. Zerbst, 295 U.S. 490, 493 (1935) (“Doubt ... is dispelled when we pass from the words alone to a
view of [the statute’s] ends and aims.”).
51 See, e.g., Moore v. Illinois Cent R.R., 312 U.S. 630, 635 (1941) (substitution of “may” for “shall” “was not, we
think, an indication of a change in policy, but was instead a clarification of the [Railway Labor Act’s] original purpose
[of establishing] a system for peaceful adjustment and mediation voluntary in its nature”). See also Gutierrez de
Martinez v. Lamagno, 515 U.S. 417, 432 n.9 (1995) (“shall” sometimes means “may”).
52 The Dictionary Act provides that “unless the context indicates otherwise,” “words importing the singular include and
apply to several persons, parties, or things; words importing the plural include the singular.” 1 U.S.C. §1.
53 Public Citizen, Inc. v. Mineta, 340 F.3d 39, 54 (2d Cir. 2003).
54 Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Products Corp., 353 U.S. 222, 228 (1957) (citations omitted). The same principle is
used to resolve conflict between two statutes. See, e.g., United States v. Estate of Romani, 523 U.S. 517, 532 (1998)
(later, more specific statute governs). See also Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 550-51 (1974) (a general statute will
not be held to have repealed by implication a more specific one unless there is “clear intention otherwise”).
55 Bloate v. U.S., 559 U.S. ___, No. 08-728, slip op. (March 8, 2010).
56 See, e.g., Adams v. Woods, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 336, 341 (1805).
57 Dole v. United Steelworkers of America, 494 U.S. 26, 36 (1990); Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U.S. 561, 575 (1995)
(continued...)
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advantaged “income resulting from exploration, discovery, or prospecting” was held not to apply
to income derived from patented cameras and pharmaceuticals that the taxpayers had
“discovered.” “Discovery,” as used in conjunction with “exploration” and “prospecting,” limited
the scope of “discovery” to activities associated with the oil and gas and mining industries.58 On
the other hand, the term “administrative” in the phrase “a congressional, administrative, or
Government Accounting Office [sic] report, hearing, audit or investigation” was held to extend
beyond federal administrative entities to include the work of state bodies as well.59 Similarly, the
term “report” in the same phrase was broadly construed to cover raw copies of contractor
documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act: the placement of “report” within a
list including “hearings, audits, and investigations” did not, as the Second Circuit had concluded,
limit “reports” to materials that also analyzed, synthesized, or explained the information
presented.60 As with other language canons, noscitur a sociis can be a factor in interpretation, but
“is by no means a hard and fast rule....”61
A corollary, ejusdem generis, instructs that, “where general words follow an enumeration of
specific items, the general words are read as applying only to other items akin to those
specifically enumerated.”62 Thus, an exemption from arbitration for “contracts of employment of
seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in ... commerce” did not apply
to the case of a salesperson at a consumer electronics store: only contracts for the employment of
individuals who transported goods and materials were to be exempted.63 At times, however,
(...continued)
(reading a statutory definition as limited by the first of several grouped words).
58 Jarecki v. G.D. Searle & Co., 367 U.S. 303, 307 (1961). “The maxim noscitur a sociis, that a word is known by the
company it keeps, while not an inescapable rule, is often wisely applied where a word is capable of many meanings in
order to avoid the giving of unintended breadth to Acts of Congress.” Id.
59 Graham County Soil and Water Conservation District v. U.S., 559 U.S. ___, No. 08-304, slip op. (March 30, 2010).
“The substantive connection, or fit, between the terms ‘congressional,’ ‘administrative,’ ‘and ‘GAO’ is not so tight or
so self-evident as to demand that we ‘rob’ any one of them ‘of its independent and ordinary significance.’” Id., slip op.
at 7 (citations omitted). The language at issue in Graham County barred qui tam actions under the False Claims Act
that were based on certain publicly available government documents, and a broad interpretation of the language
effectively limited the circumstances in which private parties could sue to recover funds fraudulently obtained from the
government by others.
60 Schindler Elevator Corp. v. U.S., 563 U.S. ___, No. 10-188, slip op. (May 16, 2011).
61 Beecham v. U.S., 511 U.S. 368, 371 (1994). The Court often explains that this and similar canons are only vehicles
for ascertaining the correct meaning of otherwise uncertain terms. See Norfolk & Western Ry. v. Train Dispatchers,
499 U.S. 117, 129 (1991) (“The canon does not control ... when the whole context dictates a different conclusion.”);
United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 580-82 (1981) (appeals court erred in finding that a second category was
merely a more general description of the first; context and language instead reveal two contrasting categories).
62 Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc., 446 U.S. 578, 588 (1980); Washington Dep’t of Social Servs. v. Keffeler, 537 U.S.
371, 384 (2003) (relying on both noscitur a sociis and ejusdem generis). The principle cannot be applied if the
enumerated categories are too “disparate.” Arcadia v. Ohio Power Co., 498 U.S. 73, 78 (1990). And, of course, context
may reveal that application is inappropriate. Norfolk & Western Ry. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U.S. 117, 129 (1991)
(exemption of carriers from “the antitrust laws and all other law, including State and municipal law,” is “clear, broad
and unqualified,” and obviously applies outside of antitrust and similar laws).
63 Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105, 114-15 (2001). “Canons of construction need not be conclusive and
are often countered, of course, by some maxim pointing in a different direction. The application of the rule of ejusdem
generis in this case, however, is in full accord with other sound considerations bearing upon proper interpretation of the
clause.” Id. at 115. Compare CSX Transportation, Inc. v. Alabama Dept. of Revenue, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-520, slip
op. at 16-17 (February 22, 2011) (a prohibition against “impos[ing] another tax that discriminates” against railroads
that followed a list of prohibited property taxes on railroad property held not limited to other property taxes; the
prohibition was distinct and independent from the listed property tax prohibitions and not a catch-all that rendered the
more specific prohibitions meaningless).
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discerning commonalities among particulars to guide interpretation of the general is not so
straightforward.64
Grammatical Rules, Punctuation
The old rule, borrowed from English law, was that “[p]unctuation is no part of the statute,” and
that “[c]ourts will ... disregard the punctuation, or repunctuate, if need be, to render the true
meaning of the statute.”65 The modern Court recognizes that grammar and punctuation often
clarify meaning, and that skilled drafters can be expected to apply good grammar.66 The Court has
also found plain meaning resulting from verb tense.67
The Court remains reluctant, however, to place primary importance on punctuation. “A statute’s
plain meaning must be enforced ..., and the meaning of a statute will typically heed the
commands of its punctuation.”68 So said the Court—not, however, in applying a plain meaning
consistent with punctuation, but instead while justifying a departure from that meaning. The
Court went on to explain that “a purported plain meaning analysis based only on punctuation is
necessarily incomplete and runs the risk of distorting a statute’s true meaning.”69 “Overwhelming
evidence from the structure, language, and subject matter” of the law led the Court to conclude
that “in this unusual case” the punctuation at issue was the result of “a simple scrivener’s error.”70
At least one case relied on comma placement to find that a plain meaning was “mandated by the
64 During a five-year period, the Court addressed the scope of the term “violent felony” in the Armed Career Criminal
Act in four separate cases. In the ACCA, “violent felony” includes, inter alia, a crime that “is burglary, arson, or
extortion, involves the use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical
injury to another” (emphasis added). In James v. United States, a five-Justice majority found that attempted burglary fit
within the residual clause because it entails a significant risk of bodily injury, which, according to the majority, is the
most relevant common attribute of the listed crimes, and not that they are all completed crimes, as the petitioner had
argued. 550 U.S. 192 (2007). In Begay v. United States, the majority found DUI to fall outside the residual clause
because it is too dissimilar to the listed crimes, being a crime that need not be deliberate, among other things. 553 U.S.
137 (2008). With somewhat less emphasis on ejusdem generis reasoning, a unanimous Court found failure to report to
prison beyond the residual clause in Chambers v. United States, finding the crime to be passive and not aggressive
conduct as the listed crimes are. 555 U.S. 122 (2009). Two years later, a majority of the Court in Sykes v. United States
found the crime of vehicle flight to carry a level of risk, and a mens rea requirement, comparable to the listed crimes
and, therefore, within the residual clause. 564 U.S. ___, No. 09-11311, slip op. (June 9, 2011). Dissenting in Sykes,
Justice Scalia reviewed the several tests the Court had derived from its various characterizations of the listed crimes in
the ACCA cases and declared the residual clause to be unconstitutionally vague.
65 Hammock v. Loan and Trust Co., 105 U.S. (15 Otto) 77, 84-85 (1881) (disregarding a comma). See also United
States v. Shreveport Grain & Elevator Co., 287 U.S. 77, 82-83 (1932) (also disregarding a comma).
66 See, e.g., Arcadia v. Ohio Power Co., 498 U.S. 73, 79 (1990) (“In casual conversation, perhaps, such absent-minded
duplication and omission are possible, but Congress is not presumed to draft its laws that way.”).
67 Ingalls Shipbuilding v. Director, OWCP, 519 U.S. 248, 255 (1997) (present tense of verb is an element of plain
meaning); Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, 538 U.S. 468, 478 (2003) (interpretation required by “plain text” derived from
present tense).
68 United States Nat’l Bank of Oregon v. Independent Ins. Agents, 508 U.S. 439, 454 (1993).
69 Id. See also Costanzo v. Tillinghast, 287 U.S. 341, 344 (1932) (“It has often been said that punctuation is not
decisive of the construction of a statute.... Upon like principle we should not apply the rules of syntax to defeat the
evident legislative intent.”).
70 Independent Ins. Agents, 508 U.S. at 462. This “unusual case” held that Congress did not in 1918 repeal a statutory
provision enacted in 1916 allowing national banks located in small communities to sell insurance. Based on the
placement of quotation marks in the 1916 statute, the “scrivener’s error” had erroneously credited the 1916 enactment
with having amended a provision that was repealed by the 1918 enactment.
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grammatical structure of the statute,” but the Court also found other support for its reading.71 In
another case in which punctuation was a factor, the Court cited periods after each item in a list of
alternatives as strongly suggesting that a modifying phrase in the last item did not apply to
previous items.72
The Court similarly relies on the rules of grammar to inform, but not necessarily determine, its
interpretations. Illustrative are two cases citing the “rule of the last antecedent,” which holds that
a limiting clause or phrase should ordinarily be read as modifying only the noun or phrase that it
immediately follows. One case looked at language that denies SSI disability to an individual who
is able to “do his previous work ... or engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which
exists in the national economy.” The claimant’s job as an elevator operator had been eliminated,
and her subsequent SSI application rested in part on the assertion that elevator operator work no
longer existed in significant numbers in the national economy. A unanimous Court upheld the
government’s position that the claimant was ineligible for SSI if she was physically capable to do
elevator operator work at all: the phrase “which exists in the national economy” applied only to
“other kind of substantial gainful work.” A second case observed that the rule of the last
antecedent made grammatical sense in interpreting a particular section of the Bankruptcy Code,
but nevertheless refrained from applying it. Under the section, a bankruptcy plan could modify
the “rights of holders of secured claims, other than a claim secured only by [the debtor’s
residence].” For structural and practical reasons, the Court held that the home mortgage exception
applied to the full amount of outstanding mortgage debt. The exception was not, in the Court’s
view, limited to the lesser amount of the home’s current market value, which would be the result
if the exception applied only to “secured claims,” as defined elsewhere in the Bankruptcy Code. 73
Though refusal always to be bound by the rules of grammar74 and punctuation gives the Court
flexibility in construing statutes, this is not to say that grammatical rules should be disregarded in
statutory drafting. These rules remain strong guides. There are many cases decided largely on the
basis of what constitutes the most “natural reading” of a statute according to common rules of
grammar, without extended reference to particular canons or other interpretational aids.75
Statutory Language Not to be Construed as “Mere Surplusage”
A basic principle of statutory interpretation is that courts should “give effect, if possible, to every
clause and word of a statute, avoiding, if it may be, any construction which implies that the
legislature was ignorant of the meaning of the language it employed.”76 The modern variant is
that statutes should be construed “so as to avoid rendering superfluous” any statutory language:
“A statute should be construed so that effect is given to all its provisions, so that no part will be
71 United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, 489 U.S. 235, 241 (1989).
72 Jama v. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, 543 U.S. 335, 344 (2005).
73 Nobelman v. American Savings Bank, 508 U.S. 324, 330-31 (1993). See also Lamie v. United States Trustee, 540
U.S. 526, 534 (2004) (“The statute is awkward, and even ungrammatical; but that does not make it ambiguous.”).
74 So too, in another case the Court shied away from “the most natural grammatical reading” of a statute to avoid an
interpretation that would have raised a serious issue of constitutionality. United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 513
U.S. 64, 68 (1994). Justice Scalia, dissenting, insisted that the language was perfectly clear, and that the rejected
interpretation was “the only grammatical reading.” Id. at 81.
75 E.g., Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 556 U.S. __, No. 08-108, slip op. (May 4, 2009).
76 Montclair v. Ramsdell, 107 U.S. 147, 152 (1883).
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inoperative or superfluous, void or insignificant....”77 A related principle applies to statutory
amendments: there is a “general presumption” that, “when Congress alters the words of a statute,
it must intend to change the statute’s meaning.”78 Resistance to treating statutory words as mere
surplusage “should be heightened when the words describe an element of a criminal offense.”79
There can be differences of opinion, of course, as to when it is “possible” to give effect to all
statutory language and when the general rule should give way in the face of evident contrary
meaning.80
A converse of the rule that courts should not read statutory language as surplusage is that, as
discussed below, courts should not add language that Congress has not included.
Same Phrasing in Same or Related Statutes
“A term appearing in several places in a statutory text is generally read the same way each time it
appears.”81 This presumption is “at its most vigorous when a term is repeated within a given
sentence.”82 It also has been applied to the appearance of a term in inter-related programs.83
77 Hibbs v. Winn, 542 U.S. 88, 101 (2004) (quoted in Corley v. United States, 556 U.S. ___, No. 07-10441, slip op. at 9
(April 6, 2009); Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n v. Solimino, 501 U.S. 104, 112 (1991); Sprietsma v. Mercury
Marine, 537 U.S. 51, 63 (2003) (interpreting word “law” broadly could render word “regulation” superfluous in
preemption clause applicable to a state “law or regulation”). See also Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 146 (1995)
(“We assume that Congress used two terms because it intended each term to have a particular, nonsuperfluous
meaning.”) (rejecting interpretation that would have made “uses” and “carries” redundant in statute penalizing using or
carrying a firearm in commission of offense). In a case analyzing the significance of the adjective “applicable” in a
provision of the Bankruptcy Code, the majority opinion relied on the presumption again superfluity to hold that
“applicable” had a limiting effect, whereas Justice Scalia, in dissent, observed that “[t]he canon against superfluity is
not a canon against verbosity. When a thought could have been expressed more concisely, one does not always have to
cast about for some additional meaning to the word or phrase that could have been dispensed with.” Compare Ransom
v. FIA Card Services, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-907, slip op. at 7-8 (January 11, 2011) with Ransom v. FIA Card Services,
562 U.S. ___, No. 09-907, slip op. at 2 (January 11, 2011) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
The presumption also guides interpretation of “redundancies across statutes.” Two overlapping statutes may be given
effect so long as there is no “positive repugnance” between them. Connecticut Nat’l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249,
253 (1992) (finding that, in spite of considerable overlap between two provisions, each addressed matters that the other
did not).
78 United States v. Wilson, 503 U.S. 333, 336 (1992) (nonetheless attributing no significance to deletion of a reference
to the Attorney General; the reference “was simply lost in the shuffle” of a comprehensive statutory revision that had
various unrelated purposes); Stone v. INS, 514 U.S. 386, 397 (1995) (“When Congress acts to amend a statute, we
presume it intends its amendment to have real and substantial effect.”). There is an exception for minor, unexplained
changes in phraseology made during recodification—changes that courts generally assume are “not intended to alter the
statute’s scope.” Walters v. National Ass’n of Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305, 318 (1985).
79 Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135, 140-41 (1994).
80 See, e.g., Moskal v. United States, 498 U.S. 103 (1990). Dissenting Justice Scalia objected to the Court’s straining to
avoid holding that “falsely made” is redundant in the federal forgery statute, which prohibits receipt of “falsely made,
forged, altered, or counterfeited securities.” “The principle [against mere surplusage] is sound, but its limitation (‘if
possible’) should be observed. It should not be used to distort ordinary meaning. Nor should it be applied to obvious
instances of iteration to which lawyers, alas, are particularly addicted.” Id. at 120.
81 Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135, 143 (1994). See also Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U.S. 561, 570 (1995); and
Wisconsin Dep’t of Revenue v. William Wrigley, Jr. Co., 505 U.S. 214, 225 (1992).
82 Brown v. Gardner, 513 U.S. 115, 118 (1994); Reno v. Bossier Parish Sch. Bd., 528 U.S. 320, 329-30 (2000).
83 Sullivan v. Stroop, 496 U.S. 478, 484 (1990) (“child support” as used in the Child Support program under the Social
Security Act points toward the same use of “child support” in the closely related AFDC program, and thus “child
support” as used in the AFDC program does not include OASDI payments under title II of the Social Security Act).
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Additionally, the Court in at least one instance referred to a broader “established canon” that
similar language contained with the same section of a statute be accorded a consistent meaning.84
The general presumption is not rigid, however, and “readily yields when there is such variation in
the connection in which the words are used as reasonably to warrant the conclusion that they were
employed in different parts of the act with different intent.”85 In other words, context can override
the presumption.
Different Phrasings in Same Statute
The other side of the coin is that “where Congress includes particular language in one section of a
statute but omits it in another ..., it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and
purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.”86 The Court cited this maxim when Congress
had restricted certain access by Guantanamo detainees to the courts immediately but did not
expressly restrict access in pending cases through petitions for writs of habeas corpus: “A familiar
principle of statutory construction ... is that a negative inference may be drawn from the exclusion
of language from one statutory provision that is included in other provisions of the same
statute.”87 In another case on the availability of habeas review, the Court referred to the history of
the provision that treated habeas relief and other access to the courts differently: “[N]egative
implications raised by disparate provisions are strongest when the portions of a statute treated
differently had already been joined together and were being considered simultaneously when the
language raising the implication was inserted.”88 This maxim has been applied by the Court—or
at least cited as a justification—in distinguishing among different categories of veterans benefits89
and among different categories of drug offenses.90 A court can only go so far with the maxim, of
84 National Credit Union Admin. v. First Nat’l Bank & Trust Co., 522 U.S. 479, 501(1998).
85 Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States, 286 U.S. 427, 433 (1933). See also Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519
U.S. 337, 342-43 (1997) (term “employees” means current employees only in some sections of Title VII of Civil Rights
Act, but in other sections includes former employees); United States v. Cleveland Indians Baseball Co., 532 U.S. 200
(2001) (different statutory contexts of worker eligibility for Social Security benefits and “administrability” of tax rules
justify different interpretations); General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline, 540 U.S. 581, 594-595 (2004) (word
“age” means “old age” when included in the term “age discrimination” in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
even though it is used in its primary sense elsewhere in the act). For disagreement about the appropriateness of
applying this limitation, contrast the Court’s opinion in Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U.S. at 573, with the dissenting
opinion of Justice Thomas in the same case, id. at 590 (interpreting a definition that, by its terms, was applicable
“unless the context otherwise requires”).
86 Keene Corp. v. United States, 508 U.S. 200, 208 (1993) (quoting Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 23 (1983)).
See also Bailey v. United States. 516 U.S. 137, 146 (1995) (distinction in one provision between “used” and “intended
to be used” creates implication that related provision’s reliance on “use” alone refers to actual and not intended use);
Merck v. Reynolds, 559 U.S. ___, No. 08-905 (April 27, 2010) (Scalia, J., concurring) (use of “discovery” alone in one
securities fraud statute of limitations provision and the use of “discovery, or after such discovery should have been
made” in another securities fraud statute of limitations provision implies that “discovery” in the first provision means
only “actual discovery” and does not include “constructive discovery”); and Bates v. United States, 522 U.S. 23, 29
(1997) (inclusion of “intent to defraud” language in one provision and exclusion in a parallel provision).
87 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557, 578 (2006).
88 Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 330 (1997) (statute was explicit in making one section applicable to habeas cases
pending on date of enactment, but was silent as to parallel provision).
89 King v. St. Vincent’s Hospital, 502 U.S. 215, 220-21 (1991) (“Given the examples of affirmative limitations on
reemployment benefits conferred by neighboring provisions, we infer that the simplicity of subsection (d) was
deliberate, consistent with a plain meaning to provide its benefit without conditions on length of service.”).
90 Chapman v. United States, 500 U.S. 453, 459 (1991) (fact that, with respect to some drugs, Congress distinguished
between a “mixture or substance” containing the drug and a “pure” drug refutes the argument that Congress’s failure to
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course; establishing that language does not mean one thing does not necessarily establish what the
language does mean.91
“Congress Knows How to Say ...”
Occasionally the Court draws a contrast between the language at issue and other statutory
language that clearly and directly requires the interpretation being pressed by one of the parties.
There are some instances—for example, failure to employ terms of art or other language normally
used for such purposes—in which this can be a fairly persuasive argument. For example, the
Court reasoned that, although “Congress knew how to impose aiding and abetting liability when
it chose to do so,” it did not use the words “aid” and “abet” in the statute, and hence did not
impose aiding and abetting liability.92 To say that Congress did not use the most precise language,
however, does not necessarily aid the court in determining what the less precise language means
in its statutory context.93 Some statutes may not be well drafted,94 but others represent conscious
choices, born of political compromise, that may or may not signal that a different result is
intended or that Congress is leaving final interpretation to agencies, courts, or future
legislatures.95 It may be inappropriate question begging to assume, therefore, that “[i]f Congress
had intended such an irrational result, surely it would have expressed it in straightforward
English.”96
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so distinguish with respect to LSD was inadvertent).
91 See Field v. Mans, 516 U.S. 59, 67 (1995) (“without more, the [‘negative pregnant’] inference might be a helpful
one,” but other interpretive guides prove more useful).
92 Central Bank of Denver v. First Interstate Bank, 511 U.S. 164, 176-77 (1994). See also Franklin Nat’l Bank v. New
York, 347 U.S. 373, 378 (1954) (finding “no indication that Congress intended to make this phase of national banking
subject to local restrictions, as it has done by express language in several other instances”); Meghrig v. KFC Western,
Inc., 516 U.S. 479, 485 (1996) (“Congress ... demonstrated in CERCLA that it knew how to provide for the recovery of
cleanup costs, and ... the language used to define the remedies under RCRA does not provide that remedy.”); FCC v.
NextWave Personal Communications, Inc., 537 U.S. 293, 302 (2003) (when Congress has intended to create exceptions
to bankruptcy law requirements, “it has done so clearly and expressly”); Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, 538 U.S. 468,
476 (2003) (Congress knows how to refer to an “owner” “in other than the formal sense,” and did not do so in the
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s definition of foreign state “instrumentality”); Whitfield v. United States, 543 U.S.
209, 216 (2005) (“Congress has included an express overt-act requirement in at least 22 other current conspiracy
statutes, clearly demonstrating that it knows how to impose such a requirement when it wishes to do so.”).
93 See, e.g., Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Educ., 544 U.S. 167 (2005) (Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination
encompasses retaliation despite absence of an explicit prohibition on retaliation such as those contained in Title VII, the
ADA, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act).
94 See, e.g., the provisions of the Plant Variety Protection Act at issue in Asgrow Seed Co. v. Winterboer, 513 U.S. 179
(1995). Justice Scalia in his opinion for the Court in Asgrow called 7 U.S.C. §2543 a “verbal maze,” and conceded that
“it is quite impossible to make complete sense of the provision.” Id. at 185-86. In another case, the Court found
statutory language “incoherent” due to use of three different and conflicting standards identifying an evidentiary
burden. Concrete Pipe & Products v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust, 508 U.S. 602, 627 (1993). The Court
resolved the issue by treating the “incoherence” as ambiguity, and by applying the one possible construction that did
not raise constitutional issues. Id. at 628-30.
95 See, e.g., Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. 244, 263 (1994) (“The history of the 1991 [Civil Rights] Act
conveys the impression that the legislators agreed to disagree about whether and to what extent the Act would apply to
preenactment conduct.”).
96 FMC Corp. v. Holliday, 498 U.S. 52, 66 (1990) (Justice Stevens, dissenting, objecting to Court’s interpretation of
convoluted preemption language in ERISA).
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Statutory Silence
Nothing compels Congress to act comprehensively when it legislates on a subject. It is not safe to
assume that Congress intends to address all ancillary issues directly whenever it acts.
As one court has aptly put it, “[n]ot every silence is pregnant.” In some cases, Congress
intends silence to rule out a particular statutory application, while in others Congress’ silence
signifies merely an expectation that nothing more need be said in order to effectuate the
relevant legislative objective. In still other instances, silence may reflect the fact that
Congress has not considered an issue at all. An inference drawn from congressional silence
certainly cannot be credited when it is contrary to all other textual and contextual evidence of
congressional intent.97
Occasionally, however, the Court identifies a pregnant statutory silence, as, for example, when
that silence contrasts with a consistent pattern in federal statutes under which departures from a
general rule had been expressly authorized.98
While Congress may not anticipate and address all issues that may arise, the Court sometimes
assumes that when Congress does wish to address major issues, it does so directly. In other
words, a finding of intentional silence can be a preferred outcome. “Congress ... does not alter the
fundamental details of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provisions—it does not ...
hide elephants in mouseholes.”99 This premise underlays the Court’s reasoning in concluding that
the FDA lacked authority to regulate tobacco. “Congress could not have intended to delegate a
decision of such economic and political significance to an agency in so cryptic a fashion.”100
A variation on the statutory silence theme is the negative inference: expressio unius est exclusio
alterius (the inclusion of one is the exclusion of others). Thus, in a situation where Congress
subjected specific categories of ticket sales to taxation but failed to cover another category, either
by specific or by general language, the Court refused to extend the coverage. To do so, given the
“particularization and detail” with which Congress had set out the categories, would amount to
“enlargement” of the statute rather than “construction” of it.101 Relatedly, “[w]here Congress
97 Burns v. United States, 501 U.S. 129, 136 (1991) (quoting Illinois Dep’t of Public Aid v. Schweiker, 707 F.2d 273,
277 (7th Cir. 1983)).
98 Director, OWCP v. Newport News Shipbuilding Co., 514 U.S. 122 (1995) (agency in its governmental capacity is
not a “person adversely affected or aggrieved” for purposes of judicial review). See also United States v. Bestfoods,
524 U.S. 51, 62 (1998) (“Against this venerable common-law backdrop, the congressional silence is audible.”); Elkins
v. Moreno, 435 U.S. 647, 666 (1978) (absence of reference to an immigrant’s intent to remain citizen of foreign
country is “pregnant” when contrasted with other provisions of “comprehensive and complete” immigration code);
Meyer v. Holley, 537 U.S. 280 (2003) (ordinary rules of vicarious liability apply to tort actions under the Fair Housing
Act; statutory silence as to vicarious liability contrasts with explicit departures in other laws).
99 Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns, Inc., 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001). See also MCI Telecommunications Corp. v.
AT&T, 512 U.S. 218, 231 (1994) (conferral of authority to “modify” rates was not a cryptic conferral of authority to
make filing of rates voluntary); Director of Revenue of Mo. v. CoBank, ACB, 531 U.S. 316, 323 (2001) (“it would be
surprising, indeed,” if Congress had effected a “radical” change in the law “sub silentio” via “technical and conforming
amendments”).
100 FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 160 (2000). Ordinarily the Court does not require
reference to specific applications of general authority, but in this instance (“hardly an ordinary case”) the Court
majority attached importance to the FDA’s longstanding disavowal of regulatory authority, and to subsequently enacted
tobacco-specific legislation that stopped short of conferring authority to ban sale of the product.
101 Iselin v. United States, 270 U.S. 245, 250 (1926). See also Lamie v. United States Trustee, 540 U.S. 526, 537 (2004)
(courts should not add an “absent word” to a statute; “there is a basic difference between filling a gap left by Congress’
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explicitly enumerates certain exceptions to a general prohibition, additional exceptions are not to
be implied, in the absence of a contrary legislative intent.”102 The Court applied the principle,
albeit without express recognition, in holding that a statute requiring payment of an attendance
fee to “a witness” applies to an incarcerated state prisoner who testifies at a federal trial. Because
Congress had expressly excepted another category (detained aliens) from eligibility for these fees,
and had expressly excepted any “incarcerated” witness from eligibility for a different category of
fees, “the conclusion is virtually inescapable ... that the general language ‘witness in attendance’
... includes prisoners ...”103 But here again, context may render the principle inapplicable. A
statutory listing may be “exemplary, not exclusive,” the Court once concluded.104
De Minimis Principle
“The venerable maxim de minimis non curat lex (‘the law cares not for trifles’) is part of the
established background of legal principles against which all enactments are adopted, and which
all enactments (absent contrary indication) are deemed to accept.... Whether a particular activity
is a de minimis deviation from a prescribed standard must ... be determined with reference to the
purpose of the standard.”105
“Substantive” Canons of Construction
There are a number of instances in which the Court subordinates the general, linguistic canons of
statutory construction, as well as other interpretive principles, to overarching presumptions that,
unless rebutted, favor particular substantive results. Some of the “weighty and constant values”
protected by these “substantive” canons of construction are derived from the Constitution, others
from notions of federalism, and yet others from interests in judicial administration and ordered
governance.106 Application of a substantive canon often, but not always,107 results in some form of
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silence and rewriting rules that Congress has affirmatively and specifically enacted”). Obviously, the line between the
permissible filling in of statutory gaps and the impermissible adding of statutory content may be indistinct in some
instances, and statutory context, congressional purpose, and overriding presumptions may tip the scales. For example,
the Court made no mention of the “absent word” rule in holding that a reference to “any entity” actually meant “any
private entity” in the context of preemption. Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, 541 U.S. 125 (2004) (preemption of
state laws that prohibit “any entity” from providing telecommunications service does not preempt a state law
prohibiting local governments from providing such service).
102 Andrus v. Glover Const. Co., 446 U.S. 608, 616-17 (1980) (citing Continental Casualty Co. v. United States, 314
U.S. 527, 533 (1942)).
103 Demarest v. Manspeaker, 498 U.S. 184, 188 (1991). Congress quickly acted to override this result and prohibit
payment of witness fees to prisoners, P.L. 102-417, 106 Stat. 2138 (1992), the House Judiciary Committee expressing
the belief that “Congress never intended” that prisoners be paid witness fees. H.Rept. 102-194, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. 2
(1991).
104 NationsBank v. Variable Annuity Life Ins. Co., 513 U.S. 251, 257 (1995) (endorsing Comptroller of the Currency’s
interpretation).
105 See Abbott Laboratories v. Portland Retail Druggists, 425 U.S. 1, 18 (1976) (occasional emergency dispensation of
drugs to walk-in patients is de minimis deviation from Robinson-Patman Act’s exemption for hospitals’ purchase of
supplies “for their own use”); Industrial Ass’n v. United States, 268 U.S. 64, 68 (1925) (3 or 4 “sporadic and doubtful
instances” of interference with interstate commerce in what was in essence an intrastate matter were insufficient to
establish a violation of the Sherman Act).
106 For an extensive listing of substantive canons, by type, used in Supreme Court decisions from 1986-2006, along
with accompanying case citations, see WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE, JR., PHILLIP P. FRICKEY & ELIZABETH GARRETT, CASES &
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“clear statement” rule, requiring that Congress, if it wishes to achieve a particular result
inconsistent with the Court’s view of legal traditions, must state such an intent with unmistakable
clarity.108
Departure from Common Law or Established Interpretation
Congress is presumed to legislate with knowledge of existing common law. When it adopts a
statute, related judge-made law (common law) is presumed to remain in force and work in
conjunction with the new statute absent a clear indication otherwise. Thus, when Congress
enacted antitrust laws and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and
established civil actions for harms “by reason of” violations of those statutes, the courts
incorporated common law principles of “proximate cause” to determine liability. Establishing that
a harm would not have occurred “but for” the violation is insufficient; as is the case under
common law actions, a more direct and immediate connection between violation and harm must
be shown.109 Similarly, when Congress adopted the common law on abandonment of property as
part of the Bankruptcy Code, it was deemed to have also implicitly adopted all the judge-made
corollaries and exceptions that attended the abandonment law: “The normal rule of statutory
construction is that if Congress intends for legislation to change the interpretation of a judicially
created concept, it makes that intent specific.”110 In another bankruptcy case the Court declared
that “[w]e will not read the Bankruptcy Code to erode past ... practice absent a clear indication
that Congress intended such a departure.”111 Further, the Court held that Congress, in adopting
language stating that a patent is presumed valid, concomitantly adopted the common law rule that
the presumed validity of a patent may be overcome only by clear and convincing evidence.112
The notion that common-law rights and causes of action survive absent clear intent to the
contrary continues to arise in a variety of contexts.113 In some instances, the presumption that
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MATERIALS ON LEGISLATION: STATUTES & THE CREATION OF PUBLIC Policy at Appendix B 29-41 (4th ed. 2007).
107 For example, in Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Solimino (501 U.S. 104 (1991)), the Court addressed
whether a federal cause of action under the Age Act was bound by unreviewed findings of a state administrative board,
as might be the case if the common law doctrine of collateral estoppel applied. In this instance, Justice Souter
characterized the maxim that judge-made law implicitly continues to apply as an analytical starting point only, one that
would give way as statutory context or purpose indicates. The opinion eschewed any formulaic application that would
make the maxim dispositive absent a “clear statement” in the statute to the contrary. 501 U.S. at 508-10.
108 Judge Wald described one such presumption as requiring that Congress “signal[ ] its intention in neon lights.”
Patricia M. Wald, Some Observations on the Use of Legislative History in the 1981 Supreme Court Term, 68 IOWA L.
REV. 195, 208 (1983). See generally pp. 206-14 of the article. See also William N. Eskridge, Jr. and Philip P. Frickey,
Quasi-Constitutional Law: Clear Statement Rules as Constitutional Lawmaking, 45 VAND. L. REV. 593 (1992).
109 See Holmes v. Securities Investor Protection Corporation, 503 U.S. 258 (1992).
110 Midlantic Nat’l Bank v. New Jersey Dep’t of Envt’l Protection, 474 U.S. 494, 501 (1986) (quoting Edmonds v.
Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 266-67 (1979)).
111 Pennsylvania Pub. Welfare Dep’t v. Davenport, 495 U.S. 552, 563 (1990) (nonetheless finding that the statutory
language plainly evidenced an intent to depart from past practice).
112 Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership, 564 U.S. ___, No. 10-290, slip op. (June 9, 2011).
113 E.g., Atlantic Sounding Co., Inc. v. Townsend, 557 ___, No. 08-214, slip op. (June 25, 2009) (availability of
punitive damages in maritime cases under common law not superseded by Jones Act); Norfolk Southern Railway v.
Sorrell, 549 U.S. 158 (2007) (common-law negligence principles continued to apply in action under the Federal
Employers’ Liability Act); United States v. Dixon, 548 U.S. 1 (2006) (common-law burden on defendant to prove
affirmative defense of duress applied in prosecution for firearms-related offenses); Bates v. Dow Agrosciences LLC,
544 U.S. 431 (2005) (continued availability of certain state common law tort remedies after Federal Insecticide,
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common law principles continue to apply has been overcome by general reference to a statute’s
purpose, even absent a “clear statement.”114 Further, Justices can disagree whether statutory
language evidences the requisite congressional intent: Does language in the Federal Employers’
Liability Act making railroads liable for employee injuries “resulting in whole or in part from
[carrier] negligence” supersede (and relax) common law rules limiting liability to injuries arising
from a “proximate cause”? In one case, five Justices held that it does, while four Justices held that
it does not.115
Preempting State Law, Impinging on State Operations
Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, Article VI, cl. 2, federal law supersedes
inconsistent state law. Whether a particular statute does so is a matter of congressional intent. A
substantive canon positions the starting point of analysis “with the assumption that the historic
police powers of the States were not to be superseded by [a federal law] unless that was the clear
and manifest purpose of Congress.”116 Many federal regulatory statutes contain a statement of
preemptive scope, either preempting state law or disclaiming intent to do so. Nevertheless, both
preemption and savings statements have presented the Court with difficult interpretive analyses of
precisely which state-based causes of action and regulations have been foreclosed or preserved.117
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Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act).
114 See Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Assn. v. Solimino, 501 U.S. 104 (1991).
115 Compare CSX Transportation Inc. v. McBride, 564 U.S. ___, No. 10-235, slip op. (June 23, 2011) (Ginsburg, J., for
the Court) (also citing previous judicial interpretations and the purpose of the statute), with CSX Transportation Inc. v.
McBride, 564 U.S. ___, No. 10-235, slip op. (June 23, 2011) (Roberts, C.J., dissenting) (finding lack of requisite
congressional intent in the statutory language and opining that if the phrase “in whole or in part” was intended to affect
any common law rule, it was to allow actions in cases of contributory negligence, not to relax proximate cause
restrictions).
116 Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218, 230 (1947); Wisconsin Public Intervenor v. Mortier, 501 U.S. 597,
605 (1991). See also Medtronic Inc. v. Lohr, 518 U.S. 470, 485 (1996) (“[B]ecause the States are independent
sovereigns in our federal system, we have long presumed that Congress does not cavalierly pre-empt state-law causes
of action.”). Nevertheless, any presumption disfavoring preemption of state law may go only so far. In PLIVA, Inc. v.
Mensing, for example, four Justices characterized the Supremacy Clause phrase “any [state law] to the Contrary
notwithstanding” as a non obstante provision that “suggests that federal law should be understood to impliedly repeal
conflicting state law” and indicates limits on the extent to which courts should seek to reconcile federal and state law in
preemption cases. 564 U.S. ___, No. 09-993, slip op. at 15-17 (June 23, 2011) (Thomas, J., plurality opinion).
In contrast to the congressional intent required to support preemption of a state-based cause of action, Congress
displaces a potential cause of action under federal common law (i.e., a suit based on judicially declared law) simply by
addressing the question at issue in a statute. American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, 564 U.S. ___, No. 10-174,
slip op. (June 20, 2011) (federal common law suit to abate greenhouse gas emissions as a public nuisance held to have
been displaced by the Clean Air Act).
117 E.g., Bates v. Dow Agrosciences LLC, 544 U.S. 431 (2005) (continued availability of certain state common law tort
remedies after Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act); Rush Prudential HMO v. Moran, 536 U.S. 355
(2002) (5-4 decision finding that Illinois regulation fell within ERISA’s preservation of state insurance laws);
Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 505 U.S. 504 (1992) (preemptive reach of Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising
Act). Compare Geier v. American Honda Motor Co. 529 U.S. 861 (2000) (despite the inclusion of savings clause
preserving liability under common law, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act nevertheless found to have
preempted a state common law tort action based on the failure of a car manufacturer to install front seat airbags: giving
car manufacturers some leeway in developing and introducing passive safety restraint devices held to be a key
congressional objective under the act, one that would be frustrated should a tort action be allowed to proceed) with
Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc., 562 U.S. ___, No. 08-1314, slip op. (2011) (applying same statute as
Geier, no conflict preemption found of common law suit based on rear seat belt type, because giving manufacturers a
choice on the type of rear seat belt to install was not a “significant objective” of the statute).
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When a statute is silent on preemption, the Court has asked three questions in determining
whether state law has been preempted implicitly: Is there a direct conflict between federal and
state law—can they be implemented simultaneously? Would implementation of state law
“frustrate congressional purpose”? Has federal law has “occupied the field” of regulation?
Answering these questions has very much been a case-by-case exercise.
In deference to the states, the Court will not lightly infer that Congress has enacted legislation
that restricts how states may constitute their own governments. In ruling that state judges are not
“employees” for purposes of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Court required a
plain statement rule for limiting state authority to determine the qualifications of their most
important government officials—an authority protected by the Tenth Amendment and by the
Guarantee Clause.118 “This plain statement rule is nothing more than an acknowledgment that the
States retain substantial sovereign powers under our constitutional scheme, powers with which
Congress does not readily interfere.”119
Abrogation of States’ Eleventh Amendment Immunity
Also protective of state sovereignty is the rule that, in order to abrogate the states’ Eleventh
Amendment immunity from suit in federal court, “Congress must make its intention
‘unmistakably clear in the language of the statute.’”120 Congress has limited authority to abrogate
states’ Eleventh Amendment immunity, to begin with; the Court held in Seminole Tribe of Florida
v. Florida, that Congress’s general legislative powers under Article I may not be used to
“circumvent the constitutional limitations placed upon federal jurisdiction [by the Eleventh
Amendment].”121 This leaves Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment (specific power to enforce
the Amendment’s guarantees) as the principal source of power to abrogate state immunity.
Despite these restrictions, Congress has been found to have abrogated immunity when it made its
intent “unmistakably clear” in the language of the statute and acted under a valid exercise of its
Fourteenth Amendment powers.122
(...continued)
A statement asserting preemption or disclaiming intent to preempt must be clear not only as to preemptive intent, but
also as to scope. In International Paper Co. v. Ouellette, 479 U.S. 481 (1987), for example, the Court ruled that some
aspects of state law were preempted in spite of a savings clause in the citizens suit provision of the Clean Water Act
declaring that “nothing in this section” should be read as affecting an injured party’s right to seek relief under any
statute or common law. Other parts of the act outside of the citizens suit section were read as implying preemption.
“Because we do not believe Congress intended to undermine this carefully drawn statute [leaving a source state
responsible for control of point-source discharges within its boundaries] through a general savings clause, we conclude
that the CWA precludes a court from applying the law of an affected state against an out-of-state source.” Id. at 484.
118 Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452 (1991).
119 Id. at 461. See also Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, 541 U.S. 125 (2004) (indicating that the plain statement
rule is also appropriate for laws “interposing federal authority between a State and its municipal subdivisions”).
120 Hoffman v. Connecticut Income Maint. Dep’t, 492 U.S. 96, 101 (1989) (quoting Atascadero State Hosp. v. Scanlon,
473 U.S. 234, 242 (1985)).
121 517 U.S. 44, 73 (1996).
122 Nevada Dept. of Human Resources v. Hibbs 538 U.S. 721 (2003) (Family and Medical Leave Act).
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Nationwide Application of Federal Law
Congress may, if it chooses, incorporate state law as federal law.123 Federal law usually applies
uniformly nationwide,124 however, and there is a presumption that, “when Congress enacts a
statute ... it does not intend to make its application dependent on state law.”125
Waiver of Sovereign Immunity
“[T]he Government’s consent to be sued ‘must be construed strictly in favor of the sovereign.’”126
Waiver of sovereign immunity must be effected by unequivocal expression in the statutory text
itself; legislative history “has no bearing” on the issue.127 As a consequence, “statutes which in
general terms divest pre-existing rights or privileges will not be applied to the sovereign without
express words to that effect.”128
A separate issue from whether Congress has clearly and unequivocally waived immunity is the
availability of money damages when immunity has been waived. When the amenability of the
federal government to damages is at issue, the Court at times has read a statute under a “fair
interpretation” standard that is “demonstrably” less exacting than the “clear and unequivocal” test
to determine whether immunity has been waived in the first place.129 At other times, the Court has
been more demanding.130 When waiver of state immunity under the Eleventh Amendment is at
stake, liability for monetary damages must be stated unambiguously.131
Non-retroactivity/Effective Date
“[A]bsent a clear direction by Congress to the contrary, a law takes effect on the date of its
enactment.”132 There is a general rule, based on the unfairness of attaching new legal
123 See, e.g., the Assimilative Crimes Statute, 18 U.S.C. §13, governing crimes within the special maritime and
territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
124 Jerome v. United States, 318 U.S. 101, 104 (1943). Arguably, the Jerome Court actually overstated the case, citing
United States v. Pelzer, 312 U.S. 399, 402 (1941), for the proposition that “the application of federal legislation is
nationwide.” Pelzer was far less sweeping, holding only that “in light of their general purpose to establish a nationwide
scheme of taxation uniform in its application,” provisions of the revenue laws “should not be taken as subject to state
control or limitation unless the language or necessary implication of the section involved makes its application
dependent on state law.” 312 U.S. at 402-03.
125 Dickerson v. New Banner Inst., 460 U.S. 103, 119 (1983) (quoting NLRB v. Randolph Elec. Membership Corp.,
343 F.2d 60, 62-63 (4th Cir. 1965)).
126 United States v. Nordic Village, Inc., 503 U.S. 30, 34 (1992); Ardestani v. INS, 502 U.S. 129, 137 (1991) (partial
waiver).
127 United States v. Nordic Village, 503 U.S. at 37. For criticism of the rule, see John Copeland Nagle, Waiving
Sovereign Immunity in an Age of Clear Statement Rules, 1995 WISC. L. REV. 771, 836.
128 UMW v. United States, 330 U.S. 258, 272 (1947) (United States is not an “employer” for purposes of the Norris-
LaGuardia Act); Vermont Agency of Nat. Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U.S. 765, 780-81 (2000)
(state is not a “person” for purposes of qui tam liability under the False Claims Act).
129 United States v. White Mt. Apache Tribe, 537 U.S. 465, 472-73 (2003).
130 Lane v. Pena, 518 U.S. 187, 192 (1996) (“To sustain a claim that the Government is liable for awards of monetary
damages, the waiver of sovereign immunity must extend unambiguously to such monetary claims.”).
131 Sossamon v. Texas, 563 U.S. ___, No. 98-1438 (April 20, 2011).
132 Gozlon-Peretz v. United States, 498 U.S. 395, 404 (1991). Ordinarily, and in the absence of special circumstances,
the law does not recognize fractions of the day, so a law becomes effective “from the first moment” of the effective
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consequences to already-completed events, disfavoring retroactive application of civil statutes.
Statutory provisions do not apply to events antedating enactment unless there is clear
congressional intent that they so apply. “Requiring clear intent assures that Congress itself has
affirmatively considered the potential unfairness of retroactive application and determined that it
is an acceptable price to pay for the countervailing benefits.”133 The prohibitions on ex post facto
laws, of course, impose a constitutional bar to retroactive application of penal laws.134
Avoidance of Constitutional Issues
The doctrine of “constitutional doubt” requires courts to construe statutes, “if fairly possible, so
as to avoid not only the conclusion that it is unconstitutional but also grave doubts upon that
score.”135 “[W]here an otherwise acceptable construction of a statute would raise serious
constitutional problems, the Court will construe the statute to avoid such problems unless such
construction is plainly contrary to the intent of Congress .... ‘The elementary rule is that every
reasonable construction must be resorted to, in order to save a statute from unconstitutionality.’
This approach not only reflects the prudential concern that constitutional issues not be needlessly
confronted, but also recognizes that Congress, like this Court, is bound by and swears an oath to
uphold the Constitution.”136 As with other issues, of course, it is the view of the majority that
prevails: “Grave doubt” as to constitutionality does not arise simply because a Court minority—
even a minority of four Justices—believes a statute may be constitutionally suspect.137
(...continued)
date. Lapeyre v. United States, 17 Wall. 191, 198 ( 1872). However, “whenever it becomes important to the ends of
justice ... the law will look into fractions of a day.” Louisville v. Savings Bank, 104 U.S. 469, 474 (1881). See Burgess
v. Salmon, 97 U.S. 381 (1878) (a law signed in the afternoon could not be applied to fine a person for actions he had
completed on the morning of the same day); United States v. Will, 449 U.S. 200, 225 n.29 (1980) (a judicial salary
increase had taken effect at the beginning of the day, and was already in effect when the President later in the day
signed legislation reducing cost-of-living increases).
133 Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. 244, 272-73 (1994) (finding no such clearly expressed congressional intent
with respect to the civil rights law’s new compensatory and punitive damages remedies and the associated right to a
jury trial). See also Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales, 548 U.S. 30 (2006).
134 Art. I, §9, cl. 3 prohibits Congress from enacting ex post facto laws; Art. I, §10 applies the prohibition to the states.
See Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. 433, 439 (1997); and Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694, 701 (2000), for general
discussion.
135 United States v. Jin Fuey Moy, 241 U.S. 394, 401 (1916); Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 237-
38 (1998); Jones v. United States, 529 U.S. 848, 857 (2000). See also Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297
U.S. 288, 347 (1936) (J. Brandeis, concurring) (“The Court will not pass upon a constitutional question, although
properly presented by the record, if there is also present some other ground upon which the case may be disposed of. [
... ] Thus, if a case can be decided upon two grounds, one involving a constitutional question, the other a question of
statutory construction or general law, the Court will decide only the latter.”).
136 DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Trades Council, 485 U.S. 568, 575 (1988) (quoting Hooper v. California, 155
U.S. 648, 657 (1895)). Accord, Burns v. United States, 501 U.S. 129, 138 (1991); Gollust v. Mendell, 501 U.S. 115,
126 (1991).
137 Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 239 (1998) (citing Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173, 191 (1991), in
which the Court concluded, over the dissent of four Justices, that abortion counseling regulations “do not raise the sort
of ‘grave and doubtful constitutional questions,’ ... that would lead us to assume Congress did not intend to authorize
their issuance”).
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Extraterritorial Application Disfavored
“It is a longstanding principle of American law ‘that legislation of Congress, unless a contrary
intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.’ This
‘canon of construction’ ... serves to protect against unintended clashes between our laws and
those of other nations which could result in international discord.”138
Judicial Review of Administrative Action
There is a strong presumption that Congress intends judicial review of administrative action: “[A]
survey of our cases shows that judicial review of a final agency action by an aggrieved person
will not be cut off unless there is persuasive reason to believe that such was the purpose of
Congress.”139 The Court requires that a statute contain “clear and convincing evidence” of an
intent to preclude judicial review of decisions made under it.140 Also, the Court tends to construe
preclusions narrowly. Thus, even where a statute has barred judicial review of the merits of
individual cases, the Court nevertheless has found that the regulations and practices for
determining cases may be reviewed.141
While the presumption of reviewability predated the enactment of the Administrative Procedure
Act in 1946, the APA embodied the presumption in statute. Under the APA, final agency actions
for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court are subject to judicial review,142 “except to
the extent that ... statutes preclude judicial review; or ... agency action is committed to agency
138 EEOC v. Arabian American Oil Co., 499 U.S. 244, 248 (1991) (quoting Foley Bros, Inc. v. Filardo, 336 U.S. 281,
285 (1949)). See also Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T, 550 U.S. 437, 454-55 ( 2007) (“The presumption that United States
law governs domestically but does not rule the world applies with particular force in patent law.”); Smith v. United
States, 507 U.S. 197, 203-04 (1993) (interpretation of Federal Tort Claims Act as inapplicable in Antarctica is
reinforced by presumption against extraterritorial application). But see Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. California, 509 U.S.
764, 796 (1993) (Sherman Act applies to foreign conduct producing, and intended to produce, substantial effects in
United States).
139 Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 140 (1967).
140 E.g., Bowen v. Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, 476 U.S. 667, 671 (1986) (“This [‘clear and convincing
evidence’] standard has been invoked time and again....”); Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. ___, No. 08-911, slip op. at 17
(January 20, 2010).
141 Bowen v. Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, 476 U.S. 667 (1986) (finding that the method for determining
the amount of benefits that are payable under Medicare Part B is reviewable even though the individual determinations
themselves are not). See also McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, 498 U.S. 479, 496 (1991) (“It is most unlikely that
Congress intended to foreclose all forms of meaningful judicial review,” given the presumption “that Congress
legislates with knowledge of our basic rules of statutory construction.”); Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. ___, No. 08-911,
slip op. at 17 (January 20, 2010) (stressing that it is for Congress, and not an executive agency, to determine whether a
discretionary agency decision is subject to review, and thus a statutory bar on review of discretionary agency decisions
was limited to certain decisions made discretionary by Congress and did not include procedural decisions made
discretionary through agency regulation).
See also Lindahl v. OPM, 470 U.S. 768, 778 (1985) (provision in Civil Service Retirement Act stating that OPM’s
“decisions ... concerning these matters are final and conclusive and are not subject to review” interpreted as precluding
review only of OPM’s factual determinations, but as not precluding review of legal interpretations). The Lindahl Court
contrasted other statutory language said to be “far more unambiguous and comprehensive” in precluding review. Id. at
779-80 & n.13 (citing 5 U.S.C. §8128(b)) (“Action of the Secretary ... is final and conclusive for all purposes and with
respect to all questions of law and fact.”); and 38 U.S.C. §211(a) (“Decisions of the Administrator on any question of
law or fact ... shall be final and conclusive and no other official or any court of the United States shall have power or
jurisdiction to review any such decision.”).
142 5 U.S.C. §704.
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discretion by law.”143 As to the first exception, the presumption of reviewability may be overcome
by specific statutory language, but it also “may be overcome by inferences of intent drawn from
the statutory scheme as a whole.”144 The second exception applies “in those rare instances where
‘statutes are drawn in such broad terms that in a given case there is no law to apply.’”145
An aspect of the second exception is that “review is not to be had if the statute is drawn so that a
court would have no meaningful standard against which to judge the agency’s exercise of
discretion.”146 Thus, the Court in Webster v. Doe looked at the structure of the National Security
Act and language allowing the Director of Central Intelligence to terminate an employee as the
Director deemed necessary or advisable, and concluded that a court could not, as a general matter,
review the necessity or advisability of terminating an employee based on sexual orientation.147
But, as in many other judicial review cases, the Webster Court was very precise as to what review
a statute foreclosed. Though the Court found decisions on whether a dismissal was necessary or
advisable resided with the Director alone, this discretion did not go so far as to preclude court
consideration of colorable constitutional claims arising from the actions of the Director. In the
Court’s view, a clearer statement from Congress is necessary before courts should refrain from
reviewing constitutional claims of administrative error.148
Deference to Administrative Interpretation
Interpreting statutes is not solely a matter for the courts. Executive agencies charged with
implementing regulatory statutes adopt policies and processes to put statutes into action.149
Agency decisions might set operational rules of general application or might arise during agency
adjudications; they might be the result of more or less formal processes; they might purport to be
more or less binding. But they all involve interpreting the law to some degree, and courts
considering challenges to agency decision making face the issue of how much to defer to an
agency reading of the law or to proceed to interpret the law on their own.
Under current precedent, when a court reviews an agency’s formal interpretation of a statute that
the agency administers, and when the statute has not removed agency discretion by compelling a
particular disposition of the matter at issue, courts defer to any reasonable agency
interpretation.150 This is the Chevron rule announced in 1984.151 In two decisions, one in 2000152
143 5 U.S.C. §701(a).
144 Block v. Community Nutrition Inst., 467 U.S. 340, 349 (1984) (judicial review of milk marketing orders not
available to consumers). Accord, United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 452 (1988) (congressional intent to preclude
judicial review clear from the purposes of the Civil Service Reform Act, from the entirety of its text, and from the
structure of the statutory scheme).
145 Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 410 (1971) (citing S.Rep. 79-752 (1945).
146 Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821, 830 (1985).
147 486 U.S. 592 (1988).
148 486 U.S. at 601-605. See also Johnson v. Robison, 415 U.S. 361 (1974).
149 Clearly, the courts and administrative agencies have different interests and different types of expertise, and their
respective processes differ in their openness to policy considerations, both in initially interpreting a statute and
amending an interpretation over time.
150 Absent a textual directive to the contrary, a compact commission overseeing an interstate compact is not reviewed
under this deferential model of judicial review. Alabama v. North Carolina, 560 U.S. ___, No. 132, Orig. (June 1,
2010).
151 Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984).
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and one in 2001,153 the Court clarified and narrowed Chevron’s application, ruling that Chevron
deference applies only if an agency’s interpretation is the product of a formal agency process,
such as adjudication or notice-and-comment rulemaking, through which Congress has authorized
the agency “to speak with the force of law.”154 Other agency interpretations that are made without
a formal and public process often are reviewed under pre-Chevron principles set forth in
Skidmore v. Swift & Co., infra.155 Additional variations of deference analysis also may come into
play in individual cases, depending on subject matter and other factors.156
As in other matters of interpretation, it is congressional intent that counts. Under Chevron, the
first question is “whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue.”157 If the
court, “employing the traditional tools of statutory construction,” determines that Congress has
addressed the precise issue, then that is the end of the matter, because the “law must be given
effect.”158 However, if the statute does not directly address the issue, “the court does not simply
impose its own construction of the statute,” but rather determines “whether the agency’s answer is
based on a permissible construction of the statute.”159
On its face, the Chevron rule is quite deferential, and was perceived as a significant break from
the multi-factored approach that preceded it.160 One would expect that a court’s conclusion as to
whether Congress has “directly spoken” to the issue would be decisive in most cases, that most of
the myriad of issues that can arise in the administrative setting would not be directly addressed by
statute, and that, consequently, courts would most often defer to what are found to be
“reasonable” agency interpretations.161 However, Chevron did not usher in a sea change of
increased deference by the Supreme Court.162 The Court has frequently determined that in fact
(...continued)
152 Christensen v. Harris County, 529 U.S. 576 (2000).
153 United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218 (2001).
154 Mead Corp., 533 U.S. at 229.
155 323 U.S. 134 (1944).
156 William N. Eskridge, Jr. & Lauren E. Baer, The Continuum of Deference: Supreme Court Treatment of Agency
Statutory Interpretation from Chevron to Hamdan, 96 GEO. L.J. 1083 (2008). One variation of deference analysis comes
into play whenever the Court invites an agency to submit an amicus brief interpreting an ambiguous agency regulation.
Unless there is reason to believe that the brief is a ‘post hoc rationalization” taken as a litigation position, or there is
another reason to believe that the brief is anything other than the agency’s fair and considered judgment, the Court will
defer to the interpretation in the brief if it is not plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation. Chase Bank USA
v. McCoy, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-329, slip op. at 12-14 (January 24, 2011).
157 Chevron, 467 U.S. at 842.
158 467 U.S. at 843 n.9.
159 Id. at 843. Many scholars and courts opine that the “permissible construction,” or “reasonable” interpretation,
inquiry under this second step of Chevron analysis is essentially the same as determining whether an agency action is
“arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion” for purposes of judicial review under the Administrative Procedure
Act, though some question whether the Chevron and APA standards are, or should be, wholly congruent in all cases.
See, e.g., Kenneth A. Bamberger & Peter L. Strauss, Chevron’s Two Steps, 95 VA. L. REV. 611 (2009) and authorities
cited therein.
160 See, e.g., Kenneth W. Starr, Judicial Review in the Post-Chevron Era, 3 YALE J. ON REG. 283 (1986).
161 See, e.g., Sullivan v. Everhart, 494 U.S. 83 (1990) (regulations are a reasonable interpretation of Social Security
Act); Smiley v. Citibank (South Dakota), 517 U.S. 735 (1996) (upholding Comptroller of the Currency’s interpretation
of 1864 Bank Act); and Lopez v. Davis, 531 U.S. 230, 240 (2001) (Bureau of Prisons regulation denying early release
is reasonable interpretation of discretionary authority).
162 An extensive study of more than 1,000 Supreme Court cases decided between the issuance of Chevron in 1984 and
the end of the Court’s 2005 Term concluded that Chevron analysis is but one of a broad array of deference regimes that
(continued...)
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Congress has settled the matter, and that consequently there is no need to proceed to the second,
more deferential step of the inquiry.163 The Court has also found that, even though Congress has
left the matter for agency resolution, the agency’s interpretation is unreasonable.164
In determining whether Congress has “directly spoken,” there is much territory between an
express delegation to an agency to address a particular issue and express legislative language
resolving the issue statutorily. Imprecision on an issue may reflect an oversight by Congress, a
failure to anticipate what might arise, a political compromise, an implicit assumption that the gap
would be filled in by the agency with technical expertise, or other considerations. With this in
mind, the Court has recognized circumstances in which it is less likely that Congress intended to
leave resolution of statutory uncertainty to the administering agency, especially when it appears
that the agency may be citing vague terms to justify jurisdiction over controversial matters with
major policy implications traditionally resolved by Congress or another agency.165 Thus, in
holding that the Food and Drug Administration lacked authority to regulate tobacco products as
“drugs” and “devices” under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Court concluded that
“Congress could not have intended to delegate a decision of such economic and political
significance to an agency in so cryptic a fashion.”166 The Court ruled that Congress had “directly
spoken” to the regulatory issue—not through the FDCA itself, but rather through subsequently
enacted tobacco-specific legislation and through rejection of legislative proposals to confer
jurisdiction on the FDA.167 In another case, the Court found deference to be inappropriate where
(...continued)
continue to be applied by Court. William N. Eskridge, Jr. & Lauren E. Baer, The Continuum of Deference: Supreme
Court Treatment of Agency Statutory Interpretation from Chevron to Hamdan, 96 GEO. L.J. 1083 (2008).
163 See, e.g., Sullivan v. Zebley, 493 U.S. 521 (1990) (regulations “are simply inconsistent with the statutory
standard”); and Dole v. Steelworkers, 494 U.S. 26 (1990) (deference to OMB interpretation of Paperwork Reduction
Act is foreclosed by Court’s finding of clear congressional intent to contrary).
164 Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns, Inc., 531 U.S. 457 (2001).
165 See, e.g., MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. AT&T Co., 512 U.S. 218, 231 (1994) (“It is highly unlikely that
Congress would leave the determination of whether an industry will be entirely, or even substantially, rate-regulated to
agency discretion.”) (holding that FCC authority to “modify” statutory filing requirements for communications carriers
did not support agency order that filing was optional for all long-distance carriers other than the then-dominant carrier –
AT&T). Unlike agency actions taken under vague or imprecise delegations of authority, actions taken under general
delegations of authority to make rules and regulations to carry out a statute are due Chevron deference. See Mayo
Foundation for Medical Education and Research v. U.S., 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-837 (January 11, 2011).
As to an agency assertion of jurisdiction delegated elsewhere, the Court stated the following in overturning a rule by
the Attorney General declaring that use of a controlled substance for physician-assisted suicide is not a legitimate
medical practice for purposes of the Controlled Substances Act: “Chevron deference ... is not accorded merely because
the statute is ambiguous and an administrative official is involved. To begin with, the rule must be promulgated
pursuant to authority Congress has delegated to the official.” Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243, 258 (2006).
166 FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 160 (2000).
167 The subsequent legislation created “a distinct regulatory scheme for tobacco products.” 529 U.S. at 159. As Justice
Breyer’s dissent pointed out, tobacco products clearly fell within the generally worded jurisdictional definitions of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and it was also clear that Congress had not spoken directly to the issue
anywhere else in that act. 529 U.S. at 162. The Court’s different resolution of a similar issue concerning patent
protection for plant breeding illustrates that a subsequently enacted “distinct regulatory scheme” does not always trump
general authority. The Court ruled in 1980 and again in 2001 that neither the Plant Patent Act of 1930 nor the Plant
Variety Protection Act—both premised on the understanding that the Patent and Trademark Office lacked authority to
issue plant patents under its general utility patent authority—deprived the Office of authority to issue plant patents
pursuant to that general authority. Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 318 (1980); J.E.M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Farm
Advantage, Inc., 534 U.S. 124 (2001).
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the agency interpretation “invokes the outer limits of Congress’ power,” and there is no “clear
indication” that Congress intended that result.168
A logical consequence of applying Chevron is to render irrelevant whether an agency
interpretation was “contemporaneous” with a statute’s enactment, or whether an agency’s position
has been consistent over the years. “Neither antiquity nor contemporaneity with the statute is a
condition of validity.”169 The fact that an agency has changed its position over the years “is not
fatal,” because “the whole point of Chevron is to leave the discretion provided by the ambiguities
of a statute with the implementing agency.”170
Agency interpretations that take place in the many less formal contexts where Chevron deference
is inapplicable (e.g., opinion letters, policy statements, agency manuals, and enforcement
guidelines, “all of which lack the force of law”171) can still be “entitled to respect,”172 “but only to
the extent that [they] have the power to persuade.”173 As the Court put it in Skidmore v. Swift &
Co., agency interpretations “constitute a body of experience and informed judgment to which
courts and litigants may properly resort.... The weight of such a judgment in a particular case will
depend upon the thoroughness evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its
consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to
persuade, if lacking power to control.”174 These factors may include whether an interpretation
applied technical expertise on a complex matter with agency jurisdiction,175 whether an agency’s
decision was well-reasoned,176 and whether the agency’s interpretation was longstanding or
consistent.177 It should be emphasized that, far from being superseded by Chevron, the Court
continues to consider agency interpretations under Skidmore-like analyses with some
frequency.178
168 Solid Waste Agency v. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159, 172 (2001). In Rapanos v. United States, the
plurality opinion took issue with the breadth of the Corps of Engineers’ claim to jurisdiction through its interpretation
of the term “the waters of the United States”: “The extensive federal jurisdiction urged by the Government would
authorize the Corps to function as a de facto regulator of immense stretches of intrastate land ... We ordinarily expect a
‘clear and manifest’ statement from Congress to authorize an unprecedented intrusion into traditional state authority....
Likewise ... the Corps’ interpretation stretches the outer limits of Congress’ commerce power.... Even if the term ‘the
waters of the United States’ were ambiguous as applied to channels that sometimes host ephemeral flows of water ...
we would expect a clearer statement from Congress to authorize an agency theory of jurisdiction that presses the
envelope of constitutional validity.” 547 U.S. 715, 738 (2006).
169 Smiley v. Citibank (South Dakota), 517 U.S. 735, 740 (1996) (upholding regulation issued more than 100 years
after statute’s enactment).
170 Id. at 742. In other words, the Court presumes “that Congress, when it left ambiguity in a statute meant for
implementation by an agency, understood that the ambiguity would be resolved, first and foremost, by the agency....”
Id. at 740-41. Under case law prior to Chevron, the Court was more apt to take into account a regulation’s longevity,
contemporaneity, and other factors in assessing the degree of deference due. See, e.g., National Muffler Dealers Ass’n
v. U.S., 440 U.S. 479 (1979).
171 Christensen v. Harris County, 529 U.S. 576, 587 (2000).
172 Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134 (1944).
173 Christensen v. Harris County, 529 U.S. at 587.
174 Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. at 140.
175 See, e.g., Aluminum Co. v. Central Lincoln Util. Dist., 467 U.S. 380, 390 (1984).
176 See, e.g., Investment Co. Inst. v. Camp, 401 U.S. 617, 626-27 (1971).
177 See, e.g., General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 142-43 (1976).
178 WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE, JR., PHILLIP P. FRICKEY & ELIZABETH GARRETT, CASES & MATERIALS ON LEGISLATION:
STATUTES & THE CREATION OF PUBLIC Policy at 1225 (4th ed. 2007).
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Repeals by Implication
If Congress intends one statute to repeal an earlier statute or section of a statute in toto, it usually
says so directly in the repealing act. There are other occasions when Congress intends one statute
to supersede an earlier statute to the extent of conflict, but intends the earlier statute to remain in
effect for other purposes. This too is often spelled out, usually in a section captioned “effect on
existing law,” “construction with other laws,” or the like: “[It] can be strongly presumed that
Congress will specifically address language on the statute books that it wishes to change.”179
Not infrequently, however, conflicts arise between the operation of two federal statutes that are
silent as to their relationship. In such a case, courts will try to harmonize the two so that both can
be given effect. A court “must read [two allegedly conflicting] statutes to give effect to each if [it]
can do so while preserving their sense and purpose.”180 Only if provisions of two different federal
statutes are “irreconcilably conflicting,”181 or “if the later act covers the whole subject of the
earlier one and is clearly intended as a substitute,”182 will courts apply the rule that the later of the
two prevails. “[R]epeals by implication are not favored, ... and will not be found unless an intent
to repeal is clear and manifest.”183 And, in fact, the Court rarely finds repeal by implication.184 As
Judge Richard Posner has pointed out, this canon is “a mixed bag. It protects some old statutes
from ... inadvertent destruction, but it threatens to impale new statutes on the concealed stakes
planted by old ones.”185
179 United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 453 (1988).
180 Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259, 267 (1981). See also Lewis v. Lewis & Clark Marine, Inc., 531 U.S. 438 (2001)
(reconciling “tension” between the saving to suitors clause and the Limitation of Liability Act); Ruckelshaus v.
Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986, 1017-18 (1984) (rejecting a contention that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act repealed by implication a Tucker Act remedy for governmental taking of property without just
compensation, and reconciling the two statutes by implying a requirement that remedies under FIFRA must be
exhausted before relief under the Tucker Act could be obtained). But see Stewart v. Smith, 673 F.2d 485, 492 (D.C.
Cir. 1982) (interpreting a statute authorizing agency heads to set maximum age limits for law enforcement officers as
an exception to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act). Even though the laws might have been harmonized
through a “strained reading,” the court concluded that doing so would thwart the maximum age law’s sense and
purpose. The Stewart court relied on legislative history to find a “clear” congressional intent “to employ maximum
entry ages as a means towards securing a ‘young and vigorous’ work force of law enforcement officers,” and concluded
that furtherance of this policy required “consideration of factors not ordinarily accounted for” under ADEA procedures.
181 Watt v. Alaska, at 266. For an example of securities law being held to preclude enforcement of antitrust law, see
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Billing., 551 U.S. 264 (2007).
182 Posadas v. National City Bank, 296 U.S. 497, 503 (1936).
183 Rodriguez v. United States, 480 U.S. 522, 524 (1987) (citations omitted). See also Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535,
550-51 (1974).
184 For an instance in which the Court arguably found repeal by implication, see Argentine Republic v. Amerada Hess
Shipping Corp., 488 U.S. 428, 438 (1989) (concluding that Congress had intended to “deal comprehensively with the
subject of foreign sovereign immunity in the [Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976],” and that consequently suit
against the Argentine Republic could not be brought under the Alien Tort Statute). But see Branch v. Smith, 538 U.S.
254, 293 (2003), in which Justice O’Connor asserted that the Court last found a repeal by implication in 1975, in
Gordon v. New York Stock Exchange, 422 U.S. 659 (antitrust laws impliedly repealed (in part) by Securities Exchange
Act). Other cases refusing to find a repeal by implication include Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (548 U.S. 557, 593-94 (2006))
and Granholm v. Heald (544 U.S. 460, 483 (2005)).
185 Friedrich v. City of Chicago, 888 F.2d 511, 516 (7th Cir. 1989). Judge Posner describes the assumption on which the
canon rests—that Congress surveys and envisions the whole body of law before legislating—as “unrealistic”: how
could Congress do so, he has questioned, “given the vast expanse of legislation that has never been repealed and the
even vaster expanse of judicial and administrative rulings glossing that legislation.” In re Doctors’ Hospital of Hyde
Park, 337 F.3d 951, 960 (7th Cir. 2003). On the plus side, the rule serves the “superior values of harmonizing different
statutes and constraining judicial discretion in the interpretation of the laws.” Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n v.
(continued...)
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Laws of the Same Session
The presumption against implied repeals “is all the stronger” if both laws were passed by the
same session of Congress.186 In the case of an irreconcilable conflict between two laws of the
same session, the later enactment will be deemed to have repealed the earlier one to the extent of
the conflict.187 Because the focus here is on legislative intent (or presumed legislative intent),
time of legislative consideration, rather than effective dates of the statutes, is the key to
determining which enactment was the “later” one.188
Appropriations Laws
The doctrine disfavoring repeals by implication also “applies with even greater force when the
claimed repeal rests solely on an Appropriations Act,” since it is presumed that appropriations
laws do not normally change substantive law.189 Nevertheless, Congress can repeal substantive
law through appropriations measures if intent to do so is clearly expressed.190
Rule of Lenity
The “rule of lenity” requires that “before a man can be punished as a criminal ... his case must be
plainly and unmistakably within the provisions of some statute.”191 Lenity principles “demand
resolution of ambiguities in criminal statutes in favor of the defendant.”192 The reasons for the
rule are that “‘fair warning should be given to the world in language that the common world will
understand, of what the law intends to do if a certain line is passed’” and that “‘legislatures and
not courts should define criminal activity.’”193 Consequently, the rule “places the weight of inertia
upon the party that can best induce Congress to speak more clearly and keeps courts from making
(...continued)
Solimino, 501 U.S. 104, 109 (1991).
186 Pullen v. Morgenthau, 73 F.2d 281 (2d Cir. 1934).
187 SUTHERLAND, STATUTES AND STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION §23:18 (Norman J. Singer ed., 6th ed. 2002 rev.).
188 Id.
189 TVA v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 190 (1978).
190 United States v. Will, 449 U.S. 200, 222 (1980).
191 United States v. Gradwell, 243 U.S. 476, 485 (1917).
192 Hughey v. United States, 495 U.S. 411, 422 (1990). See also United States v. Granderson, 511 U.S. 39, 54 (1994)
(“In these circumstances—where text, structure, and [legislative] history fail to establish that the Government’s
position is unambiguously correct—we apply the rule of lenity and resolve the ambiguity in [the defendant’s] favor”);
Cleveland v. United States, 531 U.S. 12, 25 (2000) (before choosing a “harsher alternative” interpretation of the mail
fraud statute, “it is appropriate ... to require that Congress should have spoken in language that is clear and definite”).
Accord Skilling v. U.S., 561 U.S. ___, No. 08-1394 (June 24, 2010).
193 Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135, 148-49 (1994) (quoting Boyle v. United States, 283 U.S. 25, 27 (1931)
(Holmes, J., for Court)).
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criminal law in Congress’s stead.”194 If statutory language is unambiguous,195 the rule of lenity is
inapplicable.196
Scienter
Intent is generally a required element of a criminal offense, and consequently there is a
presumption in favor of a scienter or mens rea requirement in a criminal statute. The presumption
applies “to each of the statutory elements which criminalize otherwise innocent conduct.”197 The
Court may read an express scienter requirement more broadly than syntax would require or
normally permit,198 and may read into a criminal prohibition a scienter requirement that is not
expressed.199 The Court recognizes some “strict liability” exceptions, especially for “public
welfare” statutes regulating conduct that is inherently harmful or injurious and therefore unlikely
to be perceived as lawful and innocent.200 Determining whether such an exception applies can be
difficult.201 However, if the statute does not preclude a holding that scienter is required, and if the
194 United States v. Santos, 553 U.S. 507, 514 (2008) (Scalia, J., plurality opinion).
195 The judicial quest to discern whether a penal statute is sufficiently clear can at times appear abstruse in itself.
Compare, e.g., the four-Justice plurality opinion and the four-Justice dissent in United States v. Santos. No. 06-1005,
slip ops. (June 2, 2008).
196 Beecham v. United States, 511 U.S. 368, 374 (1994) (quoting Chapman v. United States, 500 U.S. 453, 463-64
(1991)). Accord, National Org. for Women v. Scheidler, 510 U.S. 249, 262 (1994). See also United States v. Hayes,
555 U.S. __, No. 07-608, slip op. at 12-13 (February 24, 2009).
In Muscarello v. United States, a five-Justice majority eschewed application of the rule of lenity and found that a
mandatory sentence for carrying a weapon during a drug crime included having a firearm in a locked glove box or in
the trunk of a car while transporting drugs for sale: “The simple existence of some statutory ambiguity ... is not
sufficient to warrant application of [the rule of lenity], for most statutes are ambiguous to some degree.... To invoke the
rule, we must conclude that there is a ‘grievous ambiguity or uncertainty’.... [T]his Court has never held that the rule of
lenity automatically permits a defendant to win.” 524 U.S. 125, 138-39 (1998). Consider as well the four-Justice dissent
in United States v. Santos: “[T]he rule of lenity does not require us to put aside the usual tools of statutory
interpretation or to adopt the narrowest possible dictionary definition of the terms in a criminal statute.” 553 U.S. at 548
(2008) (Alito, J., dissenting).
197 United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 513 U.S. 64, 72 (1994). See also Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 556
U.S. __, No. 08-108, slip op. (May 4, 2009).
198 “Our reluctance to simply follow the most grammatical reading of the statute is heightened by our cases interpreting
criminal statutes to include broadly applicable scienter requirements, even where the statute by its terms does not
contain them.” X-Citement Video, 513 U.S. at 70. See also Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600 (1994) (National
Firearms Act interpreted to require that defendant knew that the weapon he possessed was a “firearm” subject to the
act’s registration requirements); and Liparota v. United States, 471 U.S. 419 (1985) (“knowingly” read as modifying
not only operative verbs “uses ... or possesses,” but also “in a manner not authorized”).
199 Posters ‛N’ Things, Ltd. v. United States, 511 U.S. 513 (1994) (interpreting drug paraphernalia law as requiring that
merchant knew that customers in general are likely to use the merchandise with drugs). On reading a mens rea
requirement into a statute, Justice Scalia has stated that “[i]t is one thing to infer the common-law tradition of a mens
rea requirement where Congress has not addressed the mental element of a crime. It is something else to expand a mens
rea requirement that the statutory text has carefully limited.” Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 556 U.S. __, No. 08-
108, slip op. at 2 (May 4, 2009) (Scalia, J., concurring) (internal citations omitted).
200 See, e.g., United States v. Dotterweich, 320 U.S. 277 (1943) (upholding punishment of corporate officer whose
company shipped misbranded and adulterated drugs in violation of Food and Drug laws); United States v. Freed, 401
U.S. 601 (1971) (upholding conviction under National Firearms Act for possession of unregistered hand grenades; Act
does not and need not require proof of knowledge that weapons were not registered).
201 Compare United States v. Freed, 401 U.S. 601 (1971) (knowledge of unregistered status of hand grenades not
required for conviction under National Firearms Act) with Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600 (1994) (conviction
under the Firearms Act must be predicated on defendant’s knowledge of the particular characteristics making a semi-
automatic rifle convertible to a machine gun and hence subject to registration requirement). The Staples Court
(continued...)
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public welfare exception is deemed inapplicable, “far more than the simple omission of the
appropriate phrase from the statutory definition is necessary to justify dispensing with an intent
requirement.”202 On the other hand, while “it is fair to begin with a general presumption that the
specified mens rea applies to all elements of an offense, ... it must be recognized that there are
instances in which context may well rebut that presumption.”203
Remedial Statutes
One can search in vain for recent Supreme Court reliance on the canon that “remedial statutes”
should be “liberally” or “broadly” construed.204 This is probably due to a variety of factors,
including recognition that the principle is difficult to apply and almost hopelessly general.205 This
is because many statutes are arguably “remedial,” and consequently courts have wide discretion
in determining scope of application. There may also be uncertainty over what “liberal” or “broad”
construction means.206 Nevertheless, if the principle is reformulated as merely requiring that
ambiguities in a remedial statute be resolved in favor of persons for whose benefit the statute was
enacted,207 the principle should be no more difficult to apply (once a “remedial” statute has been
identified) than the rule of lenity, which counsels resolution of ambiguities in penal statutes in
favor of defendants.208 Absence of this principle from the current Court’s lexicon, therefore, may
reflect substantive preferences of the Justices as well as recognition of its limitations. Then too,
the Court may employ more specific or limited presumptions in circumstances in which earlier
Courts might have cited the liberal-remedial maxim,209 or may instead prefer in such
(...continued)
distinguished Freed, partly on the basis that, given the “long tradition of widespread lawful gun ownership by private
individuals in this country,” possession of a semi-automatic rifle should not be equated with possession of hand
grenades. See 511 U.S. at 610-12.
202 United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 438 U.S. 422, 438 (1978) (applying principle to Sherman Act
violation).
203 Flores-Figueroa v. United States, No. 08-108, 546 U.S. __, slip op. at 2 (May 4, 2009) (Alito, J., concurring).
204 For not-so-recent reliance on the canon, see Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54, 65 (1968) (petitioner is “in custody” in
violation of Constitution for purposes of federal habeas corpus statute if any of consecutive sentences he is scheduled to
serve was imposed as a result of deprivation of his rights); Tcherepnin v. Knight, 389 U.S. 332, 336 (1967) (term
“security” should be construed broadly, in part because “Securities Exchange Act quite clearly falls into the category of
remedial legislation”); and Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 475 (1793) (Jay, C.J.) (Constitution’s extension
of judicial power over controversies between a state and citizens of another state is “remedial, [and] therefore, to be
construed liberally”).
205 The Court once referred to a variant of the canon (a statute should be liberally construed to achieve its purposes) as
“that last redoubt of losing causes,” explaining that “[e]very statute proposes, not only to achieve certain ends, but also
to achieve them by particular means—and there is often a considerable legislative battle over what those means ought
to be.” Director, OWCP v. Newport News Shipbuilding, 514 U.S. 122, 135-36 (1995).
206 Justice Scalia has inveighed against the maxim in a lecture reprinted as a law review article, calling it a “prime
example[ ] of lego-babble.” The rule, Justice Scalia concluded, “is both of indeterminate coverage (since no one knows
what a ‘remedial statute’ is) and of indeterminate effect (since no one knows how liberal is a liberal construction).”
Antonin Scalia, Assorted Canards of Legal Analysis, 40 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 581, 586 (1989-90).
207 See, e.g., Smith v. Heckler, 820 F.2d 1093, 1095 (9th Cir. 1987) (Social Security Act “is remedial, to be construed
liberally ... and not so as to withhold benefits in marginal cases”).
208 This is not to say, however, that the same fairness considerations that underlie the rule of lenity justify application of
the “remedial statute” rule.
209 See, e.g., King v. St. Vincent’s Hosp., 502 U.S. 215, 220 n.9 (1991) (“Provisions for benefits to members of the
Armed Services are to be construed in the beneficiaries’ favor.”); FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. 471, 480 (1994) (“sue-and-
be-sued” waivers of sovereign immunity should be liberally construed).
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circumstances to analyze a statute without reliance on canonical supports. Categorizing a statute
as “remedial,” or even as a “civil rights statute,” is often employed as a springboard to more
refined analysis of the purposes of the particular statute at issue.210
Statutes Benefitting Indian Tribes
Another subcategory of the “remedial” statutes canon is the proposition that “statutes passed for
the benefit of dependent Indian tribes ... are to be liberally construed to favor Indians.”211 Most
cases resolving issues relating to tribal matters implicate some variation of this proposition,212 but
frequently there are also statute-specific considerations that amplify213 or outweigh214 any such
generalities. A 2009 case did not mention an interpretive canon to favor Indians in disallowing a
protective measure taken by the Secretary of the Interior to benefit a tribe.215
Miscellany
Titles of Acts or Sections
Although “it has long been established that the title of an Act ‘cannot enlarge or confer
powers,’”216 the title of a statute or section “can aid in resolving an ambiguity in the legislation’s
text.”217 As Chief Justice Marshall explained, “[w]here the mind labours to discover the design of
the legislature, it seizes everything from which aid can be derived.”218 A title or heading, however,
210 See, e.g., Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131, 149 (1988) (The Congress which enacted [42 U.S.C.] §1983 over 100 years
ago would have rejected [a requirement of exhaustion of state remedies] as inconsistent with the remedial purposes of
its broad statute.”); Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, 396 U.S. 229, 237 (1969) (“A narrow construction of § 1982 would
be inconsistent with the broad and sweeping nature of the protection meant to be afforded by § 1 of the Civil Rights Act
of 1866”); Northeast Marine Terminal v. Caputo, 432 U.S. 249, 268 (1977) (“The language of the 1972 Amendments
[to the LHWCA] is broad and suggests that we should take an expansive view of the extended coverage. Indeed such a
construction is appropriate for this remedial legislation.”).
211 Bryan v. Itasca County, 426 U.S. 373, 392 (1976) (quoting Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States, 248 U.S. 78,
89 (1918)). An even less restrictive statement is the following: “statutes are to be construed liberally in favor of the
Indians, with ambiguous provisions interpreted to their benefit.” Montana v. Blackfeet Tribe, 471 U.S. 759, 766 (1985).
212 See, e.g., Washington v. Confederated Tribes, 447 U.S. 134, 154 (1980) (tribal sovereignty is subordinate only to
the federal government, not to the states); Bryan v. Itasca County, 426 U.S. 373, 393 (1976) (states may tax reservation
Indians only if Congress has indicated its consent); Hagen v. Utah, 510 U.S. 399, 411-12 (1994) (mild presumption
against statutory diminishment of reservation land).
213 See, e.g., California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202, 214-22 (1987) (federal policy promoting
tribal self-government and self-sufficiency, reflected in numerous statutes, is frustrated by state and county restrictions
on operation of bingo and card games, profits from which were Tribes’ sole source of income).
214 See, e.g., Negonsott v. Samuels, 507 U.S. 99, 110 (1993) (fact that Kansas Act unambiguously confers jurisdiction
on Kansas courts over crimes on reservations makes resort to canon inappropriate).
215 Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. __, No. 07-526, slip op. (February 24, 2009). Justice Stevens observes the failure of the
Court to take this remedial canon into account in his dissent. Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. __, No. 07-526, slip op. at
13-14 (February 24, 2009) (Stevens, J., dissenting).
216 Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 19 n.14 (1981) (quoting United States v. Oregon &
California R.R., 164 U.S. 526, 541 (1896) and Cornell v. Coyne, 192 U.S. 418, 430 (1904), and citing United States v.
Fisher, 2 Cranch 358, 386 (1805) and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R. v. Thomas, 132 U.S. 174, 188 (1889)).
217 INS v. National Center for Immigrants’ Rights, 502 U.S. 183, 189-90 (1991) (citing Mead Corp. v. Tilley, 490 U.S.
714, 723 (1989); and FTC v. Mandel Bros., Inc., 359 U.S. 385, 388-89 (1959)).
218 United States v. Fisher, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 358, 386 (1805).
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being only “a short-hand reference to the general subject matter involved” and “not meant to take
the place of the detailed provisions of the text,”219 can provide only limited interpretive aid. Thus,
a heading may shed light on the section’s basic thrust,220 or on ambiguous language in the text,
but it “cannot limit the plain meaning of the text,”221 and “has no power to give what the text of
the statute takes away.”222
Preambles (“Whereas Clauses”)
Preambles, or “whereas clauses,” precede the enacted language, have no “operative effect,”223
“are not part of the act,” and consequently “cannot enlarge or confer powers, nor control the
words of the act, unless they are doubtful or ambiguous.”224 Nonetheless, “whereas clauses”
sometimes serve the same purpose as findings and purposes sections, and can provide useful
insight into congressional concerns and objectives.225 Preambles can sometimes help resolve
ambiguity in enacted language.226
Findings and Purposes Sections
To apply the principle that statutory language be interpreted consistent with congressional intent,
courts may consult the stated purposes of legislation to resolve ambiguities in the more specific
language of operative sections. For example, the Court relied in part on the stated purpose of the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to seek “the eradication of
organized crime in the United States,” to conclude that the term “enterprise” as used in the act
includes criminal conspiracies organized for illegitimate purposes, and is not limited to legitimate
businesses that are infiltrated by organized crime.227 The Court also cited legislative findings in
the Americans with Disabilities Act in determining the scope of the act’s coverage: by finding that
219 Trainmen v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R., 331 U.S. 519, 528 (1947).
220 See, e.g., Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 234 (1998) (words “criminal penalties” in section
heading relied on as one indication that the section does not define a separate crime, but instead sets out penalties for
recidivists); INS v. National Center for Immigrants’ Rights, 502 U.S. 183, 189 (1991) (“text’s generic reference to
‘employment’ should be read as a reference to the ‘unauthorized employment’ identified in the paragraph’s title”).
221 Trainmen v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R., 331 U.S. 519, 529 (1947); Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., 542
U.S. 241, 256 (2004) (quoting Trainmen).
222 Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510, 535 (2003) (O’Connor, J., concurring) (citing INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 308-09
(2001)).
223 Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, 556 U.S. __, No. 07-1372, slip op. at 10 (March 31, 2009) (quoting District of
Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 at 578 n.3 (2008)).
224 Yazoo and Mississippi Valley R.R. v. Thomas, 132 U.S. 174, 188 (1889).
225 See, e.g., Donovan v. Dewey, 452 U.S. 594, 602 n.7 (1981) (citing the preamble to the Mine Safety and Health Act
as evidence of congressional awareness of the hazardous nature of the mining industry); Gray v. Powell, 314 U.S. 402,
418 (Justice Roberts, dissenting) (citing the preamble of the Bituminous Coal Act as evidence of congressional
purpose).
226 “[T]he preamble may be referred to in order to assist in ascertaining the intent and meaning of a statute fairly
susceptible of different constructions.” Price v. Forrest, 173 U.S. 410, 427 (1899).
227 United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 588-90 (1981) (relying on RICO statement of findings and purpose, 18
U.S.C. §1961 nt.). See also Knebel v. Hein, 429 U.S. 288, 292 n.9 (1977) (rejecting, in view of Secretary of
Agriculture’s broad discretion to administer the Food Stamp Program, and in view of broad purpose of Act to “increase
[households’] food purchasing power” (7 U.S.C. §2011), a holding that the Secretary lacked authority to determine that
receipt of commuting expenses to attend a training program should be counted as household “income” determining
eligibility for food stamps).
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“some 43 million Americans” suffered from one or more physical or mental disabilities, Congress
indicated that the ADA was not meant to cover all individuals with uncorrected, but correctable,
infirmities (e.g., severe myopia).228
It is easy, however, to place too much reliance on general statutory purposes in resolving narrow
issues of statutory interpretation. Legislation seldom if ever authorizes each and every means that
can be said to further a general purpose,229 and there is also the possibility that stated or inferred
purposes may in some instances conflict with one another.230
“Sense of Congress” Provisions
“Sense of Congress” language is appropriate if Congress wishes to make a statement without
making enforceable law. Ordinarily, a statement that it is the “sense of Congress” that something
“should” be done is merely precatory, and creates no legal rights.231 In the appropriate context
“sense of Congress” language can have the same effect as statements of congressional purpose—
that of resolving ambiguities in more specific language of operative sections of a law—but if that
is the intent the more straightforward approach is to declare a “purpose” rather than a “sense.”232
Savings Clauses
Savings (or “saving”) clauses are designed to preserve remedies under existing law. “The purpose
of a savings clause is merely to nix an inference that the statute in which it appears is intended to
be the exclusive remedy for harms caused by the violation of the statute.”233 A corollary is that a
savings clause typically does not create a cause of action.234
Inclusion of a savings clause, however, does not make all pre-existing remedies compatible with
the newly enacted law. If there is a conflict, the savings clause gives way.235 Courts will attempt
228 Sutton v. United Airlines, Inc., 527 U.S. 471, 484-86 (1999) (holding that sisters denied jobs as pilots because of
poor, but correctable, eyesight did not suffer from a “disability” under the ADA).
229 “[N]o legislation pursues its purposes at all costs. Deciding what competing values will or will not be sacrificed to
the achievement of a particular objective is the very essence of legislative choice—and it frustrates rather than
effectuates legislative intent simplistically to assume that whatever furthers the statute’s primary objective must be the
law.” Rodriguez v. United States, 480 U.S. 522, 525-26 (1987) (per curiam) (emphasis in original).
230 Compare Justice Brennan’s opinion of the Court in Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U.S. 30,
50-51 (1989) (Congress used undefined term “domicile” so as to protect tribal jurisdiction in child custody cases), with
Justice Stevens’s dissent, id. at 54 (Congress intended to protect the parents as well as the tribe).
231 Monahan v. Dorchester Counseling Ctr., Inc., 961 F.2d 987, 994-95 (1st Cir. 1992) (“sense of Congress” that each
state “should” review and revise its laws to ensure services for mental health patients); Yang v. California Dep’t of
Social Services, 183 F.3d 953, 958-61 (9th Cir. 1999) (“sense of Congress” that Hmong and other Lao refugees who
fought in Vietnam war “should” be considered veterans for purposes of receiving certain welfare benefits).
232 See Accardi v. Pennsylvania R.R., 383 U.S. 225, 229 (1966) (“sense of Congress” that reemployed veterans should
not lose seniority as a result of military service evidenced “continuing purpose” already established by existing law);
State Highway Comm’n v. Volpe, 479 F.2d 1099, 1116 (8th Cir. 1973) (“sense of Congress” language “can be useful in
resolving ambiguities in statutory construction,” and in reinforcing the meaning of earlier law).
233 PMC, Inc. v. Sherwin-Williams Co., 151 F.3d 610, 618 (7th Cir. 1998).
234 The “sole function” of a saving clause in CERCLA, the Superfund law, is to clarify that the provision authorizing a
limited right of contribution “does nothing to ‘diminish’ any cause(s) of action for contribution that may exist
independently....” Cooper Industries v. Aviall Servs., 543 U.S. 157, 165-68 (2004).
235 Thus, despite the inclusion of a savings clause preserving liability under common law, the National Traffic and
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to give the savings language some effect, but may have to narrow that effect to avoid eviscerating
the new law. A reference to specific remedies to be preserved can ease interpretation.236 In some
cases, the legislative context and history of the savings provision can reveal its purpose.237 In
other cases courts must reason from the scope and purpose of the new statute. For example, when
the Carmack Amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act imposed comprehensive federal
regulation governing the liability of interstate carriers, the Court held that savings language
preserving “any remedy or right of action ... under existing law” applied only to federal, not state
remedies. To allow resort to state law remedies that were inconsistent with the federal regulation
would negate the Amendment’s effect. “[T]he act cannot be said to destroy itself,” the Court
concluded.238 Even very clear savings language will not be allowed to thwart what the Court
views as an important element of a regulatory scheme carefully crafted by Congress and
implemented by the executive branch.239
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Motor Vehicle Safety Act nevertheless was found to have preempted a state common law tort action based on the
failure of a car manufacturer to install front seat airbags: Giving car manufacturers some leeway in developing and
introducing passive safety restraint devices was, according to the Court, a key congressional objective under the act,
one that would frustrated should a tort action be allowed to proceed. Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., 529 U.S.
861 (2000). Even if there is no conflict, courts may construe a savings clause narrowly. See, e.g., City of Rancho Palos
Verdes v. Abrams, 544 U.S. 113, 125 (2005) (relief is not available under 42 U.S.C. §1983 as an alternative to a new
statutory cause of action to enforce a new statutory right; a savings clause providing that the amendments do not
“impair” existing law has “no effect” on the availability of section 1983 actions because no such relief was available
prior to creation of the new right).
236 See, e.g., 30 U.S.C. §189, which provides that nothing in the Mineral Leasing Act shall be construed to affect the
rights of state and local governments to levy and collect taxes on improvements and “output of mines.” The Supreme
Court relied on this language in holding that states may impose severance taxes on coal extracted from federal lands.
Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana, 453 U.S. 609, 631-33 (1981).
237 Here, as elsewhere, the Justices vary in their inclination toward reaching beyond “plain meaning” if the language of
a savings clause arguably is facially consonant with the broader statutory structure. In Chamber of Commerce of the
United States v. Whiting, five Justices straightforwardly adopted the “plain meaning” of a 1986 clause saving state
“licensing and similar laws” from preemption by federal employer sanctions, and upheld a later enacted Arizona law
suspending or revoking the licenses of businesses found by the state to have employed unauthorized aliens in violation
of federal standards. By contrast, two dissenting opinions were troubled that the Arizona sanction was far more severe
than that authorized for similar violations under either federal law or state laws in force prior to 1986, and they
interpreted the savings law more narrowly to maintain what they perceived as the regulatory balance Congress sought
in the 1986 law. 563 U.S. ___, No. 09-115, slip op. (May 26, 2011). See also Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, & Smith
v. Curran, 456 U.S. 353, 386-87 (1982) (“saving clause” stating that an amendment to the Commodity Exchange Act
was not intended to “supersede or limit the jurisdiction” of state or federal courts, placed in the bill to alleviate fears
that the new remedies would be deemed exclusive, was an indication of congressional intent not to eliminate an implied
private right of action under the act).
238 Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U.S. 491, 507 (1913). Accord, AT&T v. Central Office Tel., Inc., 524 U.S.
214, 227 (1998). In City of Milwaukee v. Illinois, 451 U.S. 304, 328-29 (1981), the Court held that the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act of 1972 created a comprehensive regulatory program that eliminated previously available federal
common law remedies. Savings language in the citizen suit section providing that “nothing in this section shall restrict
any right which any person ... may have under ... common law” was irrelevant, since it was the act’s standards-setting
and permitting provisions, not the citizen suit section, that ousted federal common law.
239 See, e.g., Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., 529 U.S. 861 (2000) (despite a statute’s savings clause providing
that “compliance with” a safety standard “does not exempt any person from any liability under common law,” a state
common law tort action against auto manufacturer found to be preempted by a federal motor vehicle safety standard
giving manufacturers a choice among types of passive restraints to install for front seats). But see Williamson v. Mazda
Motor of America, 562 U.S. ___, No. 08-1314 (February 23, 2011) (applying same statute and savings clause at issue
in Geier, state common law tort action held not to be pre-empted by federal safety standard giving manufacturers a
choice of what type of seatbelts to install for center seats in the back on minivans). The Williamson Court distinguished
Geier by emphasizing that the savings clause only preserved a state tort action from being expressly pre-empted by a
federal motor vehicle safety standard. However, a state tort action could be barred nonetheless by conflict pre-emption
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“Notwithstanding Any Other Provision of Law”
Congress sometimes seeks to underscore the primacy of a statutory directive by stating that it is to
apply “notwithstanding” the provisions of another, specified statute or class of statutes. Courts
take into account this expressed intent to override the provisions specified in a “notwithstanding”
clause,240 but when the clause purports to override “any other provision of law,” its preclusive
scope often is unclear. One court, for example, ruled that a directive to proceed with timber sale
contracts “notwithstanding any other provision of law” meant only “notwithstanding any
provision of environmental law,” and did not relieve the Forest Service from complying with
federal contracting law requirements governing such matters as non-discrimination, small
business set-asides, and export restrictions.241 “We have repeatedly held that the phrase
‘notwithstanding any other law’ is not always construed literally ... and does not require the
agency to disregard all otherwise applicable laws.”242 Still, there are cases that have given full
measure to “any other provision of law.”243 As a rule, though, it might be more effective to spell
out which other laws are to be disregarded,244 and it must be kept in mind, of course, that no
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if, as in Geier, the regulatory provision giving manufacturers a choice in selecting safety devices was key to
accomplishing the agency’s objective to promote safety. See also Sprietsma v. Mercury Marine, 537 U.S. 51, 63 (2003)
(finding no such conflict preemption, and concluding that the Federal Boat Safety Act’s savings clause, providing that
compliance with federal standards “does not relieve a person from liability at common law,” “buttresses” the
conclusion that the act’s preemption language does not encompass common-law claims).
240 For example, several cases have given effect to the provision of the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act that states a
restitution order can be enforced against any property of the person fined under the order, “[n]otwithstanding any other
Federal law.” E.g., United States v. Hyde, 497 F.3d 103 (1st Cir. 2007) (superseding bankruptcy law); United States v.
Novak, 476 F.3d 1041 (2007) (superseding ERISA).
241 Oregon Natural Resources Council v. Thomas, 92 F.3d 792 (9th Cir. 1996). The court harmonized the
“notwithstanding” phrase with other provisions of the act that pointed to the limiting construction.
242 Id. at 796. The Three-Sisters Bridge saga offers another example. After a court decision had ordered a halt to
construction of the bridge pending compliance with various requirements in D.C. law for public hearings, etc., the
project was abandoned. Congress then directed that construction proceed on the bridge project and related highway
projects “notwithstanding any other provision of law, or any court decision or administrative action to the contrary.”
The same section, however, directed that “such construction ... shall be carried out in accordance with all applicable
provisions of title 23 of the United States Code.” The federal appeals court held that, notwithstanding the
“notwithstanding” language, compliance with federal highway law in title 23 (including requirements for an
evidentiary hearing, and for a finding of no feasible and prudent alternative to use of parkland) was still mandated. D.C.
Fed’n of Civic Ass’ns v. Volpe, 434 F.2d 436 (D.C. Cir. 1970). Then, following remand, the same court ruled that
compliance with 16 U.S.C. §470f, which requires consultation and consideration of effects of such federally funded
projects on historic sites, was also still mandated. 459 F. 2d 1231, 1265 (1972).
243 See, e.g., Schneider v. United States, 27 F.3d 1327, 1331 (8th Cir. 1994). The court there rejected an argument that
language in the Military Claims Act (“[n]otwithstanding any other provision of law, the settlement of a claim under
section 2733 ... of this title is final and conclusive”) does not preclude judicial review, but merely cuts off other
administrative remedies. Noting different possible interpretations of “final,” “final and conclusive,” and the provision’s
actual language, the court concluded that “[t]o interpret the section as precluding only further administrative review
would be to render meaningless the phrase ‛notwithstanding any other provision of law.’”
244 To be sure, not every potential roadblock can be anticipated and averted by narrowly tailored language, and broad
language may be necessary to ensure that statutory purposes are not frustrated. But, in spite of the interpretation in
Schneider, the “notwithstanding” phrase is a blunt instrument. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act may be a
better model for such situations. That act directed that the Pipeline “be constructed promptly without further
administrative or judicial delay or impediment,” specified that construction was to proceed generally in accordance
with plans set forth in the already-prepared Final Environmental Impact Statement, declared that no further action was
to be required under the National Environmental Policy Act, specified which subsections of the law governing rights-
of-way across federal land (a law that had been relied upon in earlier litigation to enjoin the project) were to apply, and
severely limited judicial review. See 43 U.S.C. §1652. For a less complete identification of laws to be disregarded, and
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“notwithstanding” clause can foreclose subsequent legislation that supersedes it expressly or
implicitly.
Implied Private Right of Action
From time to time courts have held that a federal statute that does not explicitly create a private
cause of action nonetheless implicitly creates one.245 This notion traces to the old view that every
right must have a remedy.246 As the Supreme Court put it in an early case, where “disregard of the
command of a statute ... results in damage to one of the class for whose especial benefit the
statute was enacted, the right to recover damages from the party in default is implied.”247
The Court has gradually retreated from that position,248 and now is willing to find an implied
private right of action only if it concludes that Congress intended to create one. This raises an
obvious question: if Congress intended to create a cause of action, why did it not do so
explicitly?249 While the Court has attempted to explain that it does not mean direct intent,250 the
test now seems weighted against finding an implied private cause of action.251 The Court appears
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some concomitant interpretational problems, see Norfolk & Western Ry. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U.S. 117, 138-39
(1991) (two dissenting Justices disputed the Court’s conclusion that the exemption of a carrier in a rail consolidation
from “the antitrust laws and all other law, including State and municipal law,” comprehended an exemption from the
terms of a collective bargaining agreement).
245 What is usually at issue in these cases is whether a federal statute creates a right in a private individual to sue
another private entity. Persons alleging that federal statutory rights have been violated by state or local governmental
action may be able to sue state officials under 42 U.S.C. §1983.
246 Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 163 (1803) (citing Blackstone’s Commentaries).
247 Texas & Pacific Ry. v. Rigsby, 241 U.S. 39-40 (1916).
248 See, e.g., Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66 (1975) (creating a four-part test to determine whether a private right of action
was implied, one part of which was congressional intent); and Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington, 442 U.S. 560, 575
(1979) (calling congressional intent the “central inquiry”).
249 There may be plausible answers for some older statutes. Congress may have enacted the law at a time when the old
rule held sway favoring remedies for statutory rights, or Congress may have patterned the language after language in
another law that had been interpreted as creating a private right of action. See, e.g., Cannon v. University of Chicago,
441 U.S. 677, 710-11 (1979) (Congress patterned Title IX of the Civil Rights Act after Title VI, and believed that Title
VI was enforceable by private action). See also Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith v. Curran, 456 U.S. 353, 378-82
(1982) (focusing on contemporary legal context in which Congress legislated, implied right of private action found to
continue to exist under language carried over from a prior statute).
250 “Our focus on congressional intent does not mean that we require evidence that Members of Congress, in enacting
the statute, actually had in mind the creation of a private right of action. The implied cause of action doctrine would be
a virtual dead letter were it limited to correcting drafting error when Congress simply forgot to codify its evident
intention....” This “intention,” the Court went on, “can be inferred from the language of the statute, the statutory
structure, or some other source.” Thompson v. Thompson, 484 U.S. 174, 179 (1988). Concurring in the same case,
Justice Scalia found himself “at a loss to imagine what congressional intent to create a private right of action might
mean, if it does not mean that Congress had in mind the creation of a private right of action.” Id. at 188. Justice Scalia
instead advocated “[a] flat rule that private rights of action will not be implied in statutes hereafter enacted,” explaining
that “[a] legislative act so significant, and so separable from the remainder of the statute, as the creation of a private
right of action seems to me so implausibly left to implication that the risk should not be endured.” Id. at 192.
251 See, e.g., Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 285 (2001) (there is no private right of action to enforce disparate-
impact regulations issued under the general regulation-issuing authority of section 602 of Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act; even though a private right of action does exist to enforce the anti-discrimination prohibition of section 601, the
disparate-impact regulations “do not simply apply § 601,” but go beyond it). For analysis of the whole topic, including
the changing approach by the Court, see Susan J. Stabile, The Role of Congressional Intent in Determining the
Existence of Implied Private Rights of Action, 71 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 861 (1996).
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particularly reluctant to find that a violation of a condition placed on funding (e.g., barring
education funds to schools that do not require consent for release of student records) gives rise to
a private remedy.252
When an implied right of a private cause of action has been found, the Court tends to give it
“narrow dimensions,” leaving to Congress the option to expand it.253
Incorporation by Reference
Interpretational difficulties may also arise if one statute incorporates by reference provisions of an
existing statute. A leading treatise declares that incorporations by “general reference” normally
include subsequent amendments, but that incorporations by “specific reference” normally do
not.254 A general reference “refers to the law on the subject generally,” while a specific reference
“refers specifically to a particular statute by its title or section number.”255
Severability
When one section of a law is held unconstitutional, courts are faced with determining whether the
remainder of the statute remains valid, or whether the whole statute is nullified. “Unless it is
evident that the Legislature would not have enacted those provisions which are within its power,
independently of that which is not, the invalid part may be dropped if what is left is fully
operative as a law.”256 Congress frequently includes a pro forma severability clause in a statute,257
and this may reinforce a “presumption” of severability by removing much of the doubt about
congressional intent.258 A severability clause does not guarantee, however, that what remains of a
252 E.g., Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273 (2002) (federal funding provisions provide no right for private recourse
under §1983 absent clear, unambiguous intent to the contrary).
253 See Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 564 U.S. ___, No. 09-525, slip op. (June 13, 2011)
(interpreting liability under SEC Rule 10b-5 for “making” an untrue statement as being confined to the entity with final
authority over the content of the statement and whether to release it; preparation of misleading mutual fund prospectus
by the fund’s administrator held insufficient to make the administrator liable because ultimate legal control over the
content of the prospectus lay with the fund).
254 2B SUTHERLAND, STATUTES AND STATUTORY INTERPRETATION, §51.07 (Norman J. Singer ed., 6th ed. 2000 revision).
255 Id. A clear example of a general incorporation was afforded by §20 of the Jones Act, providing that in an action for
wrongful death of a seaman, “all statutes of the United States conferring or regulating the right of action for death in the
case of railway employees shall be applicable.” As the Court explained in Panama R.R. Co. v. Johnson, 264 U.S. 375,
391-92 (1924), this “generic reference” was “readily understood” as a reference to the Federal Employer Liability Act
and its amendments.
256 Alaska Airlines, Inc. v. Brock, 480 U.S. 678, 684 (1987) (quoting Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 108 (1976)).
257 See, e.g., 2 U.S.C. §1438 (§509 of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995): “If any provision of this Act or
the application of such provision to any person or circumstance is held to be invalid, the remainder of this Act and the
application of the provisions of the remainder to any person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.” These
provisions are also sometimes called “separability” clauses. See, e.g., 29 U.S.C. §114.
258 Alaska Airlines, 480 U.S. at 486. Absence of a severability clause does not raise a presumption against severability.
New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144, 186 (1992).
One observer stated the following on the Court and severability: “Despite the unambiguous command of severability
and inseverability clauses, the Court has repeatedly held that they create only a rebuttable presumption that guides—but
does not control—a reviewing court’s severability determination.... [T]he Court has chosen instead to focus on extrinsic
evidence of legislative intent and on the potential functionality of the post-severance statutory scheme....” Michael
Shumsky, Severability, Inseverability, and the Rule of Law, 41 HARV. J. ON LEGIS. 227, 230 (2004).
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statute after a portion has been invalidated is “fully operative”; courts sometimes find that valid
portions of a statute cannot stand on their own even though Congress has included a severability
clause.259 Far less frequently, Congress includes non-severability language providing that
remaining sections of a law shall be null and void if a part (sometimes a specified part) is held
unconstitutional.260 Case law is sparse,261 but there is no apparent reason why courts should refuse
to honor a clearly expressed non-severability directive.262
Deadlines for Administrative Action
“If a statute does not specify a consequence for noncompliance with statutory timing provisions,
the federal courts will not in the ordinary course impose their own coercive sanction.”263 Absent
specified consequences, such deadlines “are at best precatory rather than mandatory,”264 and are
read “as a spur to prompt action, not as a bar to tardy completion.”265 “A statute directing official
action needs more than a mandatory ‘shall’ before the grant of power can sensibly be read to
expire when the job is supposed to be done.”266 Thus, agency actions taken after a deadline are
ordinarily upheld as valid.267 Although courts are loath to impose “coercive” sanctions that would
defeat the purpose of the underlying agency duty, courts sometimes will lend their authority,
backed by the possibility of contempt for recalcitrant agency officials, by ordering compliance
with statutory directives after a missed deadline.268
259 “A severability clause requires textual provisions that can be severed.” Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 882 (1997).
See also Hill v. Wallace, 259 U.S. 44 (1922); and Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U.S. 238, 312-16 (1936).
260 See, e.g., 25 U.S.C. §941m(a) (§15(a) of the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina Land Claims Settlement Act of
1993): “If any provision of section 941b(a), 941c, or 941d of this title is rendered invalid by the final action of a court,
then all of this subchapter is invalid.”
261 But see, e.g., Zobel v. Williams, 457 U.S. 55, 65 (1982) (observing in dictum that, due to inclusion of non-
severability language in an Alaska law, “we need not speculate as to the intent of the Alaska Legislature”).
262 See Israel E. Friedman, Comment, Inseverability Clauses in Statutes, 64 U. CHI. L. REV. 903 (1997). Friedman
contends that “inseverability clauses are fundamentally different from severability clauses and should be shown greater
deference.” Id. at 904. Inseverability clauses, he points out, “are anything but boilerplate,” usually are included only
after extensive debate, and are often designed to preserve a legislative compromise. Id. at 911-13.
263 United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, 510 U.S. 43, 63 (1993) (failure of customs agent to “report
immediately” a customs seizure should not result in dismissal of a forfeiture action).
264 Liesegang v. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 312 F.3d 1328, 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2002).
265 Barnhart v. Peabody Coal Co., 537 U.S. 149, 172 (2003).
266 Barnhart v. Peabody Coal Co., 537 U.S. at 161.
267 In Peabody Coal, the Court held that a deadline in the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act for assignment of
retired beneficiaries to coal companies did not prevent assignment after the deadline. See also United States v.
Montalvo-Murillo, 495 U.S. 711 (1990) (failure to comply with the Bail Reform Act’s requirement of an “immediate”
hearing does not mandate release pending trial); Brock v. Pierce County, 476 U.S. 253 (1986) (Secretary of Labor’s
failure to comply with the statutory deadline for beginning an investigation about misuse of federal funds does not
divest the Secretary of authority to launch a tardy investigation).
268 See, e.g., NRDC v. Train, 510 F.2d 692 (D.C. Cir. 1975) (setting general guidelines, based on equitable principles,
for courts to follow in mandating agency compliance following missed deadlines); Sierra Club v. Thomas, 658 F. Supp.
165 (N.D. Cal. 1987) (using the length of time initially set by Congress as the measure of how much additional time to
allow EPA after the agency missed a deadline for promulgating regulations).
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“Jurisdictional” Rules
Under the Constitution, Congress determines what cases a federal adjudicatory body may
consider. Most fundamentally, Congress limits the subject matter a court or administrative
adjudicator can hear. These subject matter limitations are “mandatory and jurisdictional”; an
adjudicator is powerless over cases that lie outside them, however meritorious. Beyond subject
matter rules, the Court at times also has held that statutory deadlines and preconditions to
bringing a case are similarly “mandatory and jurisdictional.” Thus, the Court in Bowles v. Russell
held that a court of appeals could not hear an appeal when the notice to appeal was filed after a
statutory 14-day deadline but within a 17-day deadline set forth by the district court.
Nevertheless, the Court often distinguishes between rules of “jurisdiction,” which speak to the
power of the adjudicator, and those restrictions and conditions, sometimes referred to as “claim-
processing requirements,” which speak more to the rights and obligations of parties.
“Jurisdictional” rules are absolute bars, but the latter types of requirement may be waived or
overcome by considerations of equity. Key to the distinction is whether Congress “clearly states
that a threshold limitation on a statute’s scope shall count as jurisdictional....”269 If Congress has
not, the Court likely will regard the limitation’s effect more flexibly.270
Legislative History
Plain Meaning Rule
Different schools of statutory interpretation regard text differently. Textualists regard the words
embodied in the text of a statute as the “law”: “Congress’ intent is found in the words it has
chosen to use.”271 Intentionalism and related methods are less sanguine about whether statutory
language alone can fully and adequately embody the “law” for purposes of applying statutes in
individual cases.272 Yet textualists on occasion recognize the value of extrinsic perspectives, and
intentionalists regard statutory language as the analytical starting point and at least strong
evidence of what a law intends.
The primacy of text in discerning meaning is expressed in the “plain meaning rule.” That rule
holds that where the language of a statute is plain, the sole role of the courts is to enforce it
according to its terms. In practice, the cases vary in characterizing the rule as mandatory or
269 Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 515 (2006).
270 E.g., Henderson v. Shinseki, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-1036 (March 1, 2011) (120-day deadline for filing an appeal to
the U.S. Court of Veterans’ Appeals, an Article I court, held not to be jurisdictional, especially given the liberal
construction due veterans benefits provisions); Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. ___, No. 08-103 (March 2,
2010) (Copyright Act requirement that a copyright holder register a work before instituting an infringement suit held
not to bar class action comprising both holders who had registered their work and those who had not); Arbaugh v. Y &
H Corp., 546 U.S. 500 (2006) (Title VII’s cause of action allowing sex discrimination suits against employers having at
least 15 employees does not bar suits against smaller employers, but rather is a matter to be raised defensively by the
defendant).
271 Harbison v. Bell, 556 U.S. __, No. 07-8521, slip op. at 3 ((April 1, 2009) (Thomas, J., concurring).
272 See, e.g., Stephen Breyer, On the Uses of Legislative History in Interpreting Statutes, 65 S. CAL. L. REV. 845, 848
(1992) (“Using legislative history to help interpret unclear statutory language seems natural. Legislative history helps a
court understand the context and purpose of a statute.”).
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prudential, and those differences often play out indirectly through arguments about whether
particular language is sufficiently clear and unambiguous to preclude further inquiry.
There seems to be general consensus that the plain meaning rule aptly characterizes
interpretational priorities (statutory language is primary, other considerations of intent and
purpose secondary). 273 However, agreement on the basic meaning of the plain meaning rule—if it
occurs—does not guarantee agreement in the rule’s application. There have been cases in which
Justices of the Supreme Court have agreed that the statutory provision at issue is plain, but have
split 5-4 over what that plain meaning is.274 There are other cases in which strict application is
simply ignored; courts, after concluding that the statutory language is plain, nonetheless look to
legislative history, either to confirm that plain meaning,275 or to refute arguments that a contrary
interpretation was “intended.”276 The one generally recognized exception to the rule is that a plain
meaning is rejected if it would produce an “absurd result.”277 Nevertheless, even in cases of
“absurd results” Justices can disagree over whether it is appropriate to consult legislative
materials for interpretational insight.278
273 Different views on the strictures posed by statutory text are not new. The classic extremes are represented by
Caminetti v. United States, 242 U.S. 470 (1917), and Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892).
In Caminetti, the Court applied the plain meaning rule to hold that the Mann Act, or “White Slave Traffic Act,” which
prohibits transportation of women across state lines for purposes of “prostitution, debauchery, or any other immoral
purpose,” clearly applies to noncommercial immorality, in spite of legislative history showing that the purpose was to
prohibit the commercial “white slave trade.” In Holy Trinity, the Court held that a church’s contract with a foreigner to
come to this country to serve as its minister was not covered by a statutory prohibition on inducements for importation
of aliens “to perform labor or service of any kind.” The Court brushed aside the fact that the statute made no exception
for ministers, although it did so for professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, and domestic servants, and declared
the law’s purpose to be to prevent importation of cheap manual labor. “A thing may be within the letter of the statute
and yet not within the statute, because not within its spirit, nor within the intention of its makers,” the Court explained.
143 U.S. at 459.
274 See, e.g., Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479 (1985) (disagreement over the scope of civil RICO). See also
Corley v. United States, 556 U.S. __, No. 07-10441, slip op. (April 6, 2009).
275 Thunder Basin Coal Co. v. Reich, 510 U.S. 200, 209 (1994) (“The legislative history of the Mine Act confirms this
interpretation”).
276 See Darby v. Cisneros, 509 U.S. 137, 147 (1993) (“Recourse to the legislative history of § 10(c) is unnecessary in
light of the plain meaning of the statutory text.” The Court considered the legislative history, nevertheless, and found
nothing inconsistent between it and the Court’s reading of statutory language.); Toibb v. Radloff, 501 U.S. 157, 162
(1991) (“even were we to consider the sundry legislative comments urged [upon us] ..., the scant legislative history
does not suggest a ‘clearly expressed legislative intent [to the] contrary’”); Arcadia v. Ohio Power Co., 498 U.S. 73, 84
n.2 (1990) (rejecting reliance on legislative history said to be “overborne” by the statutory text). The Court has declared
that it will not allow a literal reading of the statute to produce a result “demonstrably at odds with the intentions of its
drafters,” but in the same breath has indicated that it is only “the exceptional case” in which that can occur. Griffin v.
Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U.S. 564, 571 (1982).
277 See, e.g., United States v. Granderson, 511 U.S. 39, 47 n.5 (1994) (dismissing an interpretation said to lead to an
absurd result); Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410, 427 (1992) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (“If possible, we should avoid
construing the statute in a way that produces such absurd results.”); Public Citizen v. Department of Justice, 491 U.S.
440, 454 (1989) (“Where the literal reading of a statutory term would compel ‘an odd result,’ ... we must search for
other evidence of congressional intent to lend the term its proper scope.”).
278 Concurring in Green v. Bock Laundry Machine Co., Justice Scalia agreed on the appropriateness of consulting
legislative history for the limited purpose of determining whether what appeared to be an absurd meaning of a key
statutory term was indeed considered and intended. Beyond this, however, “[t]he meaning of terms on the statute books
ought to be determined, not on the basis of which meaning can be shown to have been understood by a larger handful
of the Members of Congress; but rather on the basis of which meaning is (1) most in accord with context and ordinary
usage, and thus most likely to have been understood by the whole Congress which voted on the words of the statute
(not to mention the citizens subject to it, and (2) most compatible with the surrounding body of law into which the
provision must be integrated ... I would not permit any of the historical and legislative material discussed by the Court,
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The commonest bridge from text to legislative history is a finding that the statutory language is
not plain, but instead is unclear or “ambiguous.”279 Significant differences arise, however, in the
willingness of courts to label particular statutory language as “ambiguous” and thereby resort to
legislative history. Some judges are more sanguine than others in the ability to interpret statutory
text without resort to the “extrinsic” aid of legislative history.280 Correspondingly, there are basic
differences in approach, from narrow focus on the clarity or ambiguity of the particular statutory
phrase at issue, to recognition that phrases that may seem ambiguous in isolation may be clarified
by statutory context.281 And, inevitably, tensions may arise between apparently clear language and
perceived intent.282
Uses of Legislative History
Over time, the Court has by turns been relatively more receptive or skeptical toward mining the
legislative process for insight into a statute’s meaning.283 Statute-making is a collective exercise.
Drafters seek to capture a sponsor’s intent in words, however imperfectly. Language introduced
as legislation is subjected to examination, criticism and revision in diverse congressional fora—
large and small, formal and informal—as it moves toward approval—again, via diverse groups
with varying degrees of expertise and interest—and eventual enactment into law. Particularly
since the 1980s, some Court opinions have characterized modern congressional processes as too
fractured to admit any statement or explanation made in any step along the way as an
authoritative declaration by Congress as a whole (assuming Congress had a discernible
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or all of it combined, to lead me to a different result from the one that these factors suggest.” 490 U.S. 504 at 527, 528
(1989) Scalia, J., concurring).
279 “In aid of the process of construction we are at liberty, if the meaning be uncertain, to have recourse to the
legislative history of the measure and the statements by those in charge of it during its consideration by the Congress.”
United States v. Great Northern Ry., 287 U.S. 144 (1932). On the other hand, “we do not resort to legislative history to
cloud a statutory text that is clear.” Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135, 147-48 (1994).
280 “When aid to the construction of the meaning of words, as used in the statute, is available, there certainly can be no
‘rule of law’ which forbids its use, however clear the words may appear on ‘superficial examination.’” United States v.
American Trucking Ass’ns, 310 U.S. 534, 543-44 (1940). Justice Frankfurter, dissenting in United States v. Monia, 317
U.S. 424 (1943), made much the same point: “[t]he notion that because the words of a statute are plain, its meaning is
also plain, is merely pernicious oversimplification.” Justice Scalia explains why he opposes ready resort to legislative
history: “Judges interpret laws rather than reconstruct legislators’ intentions. Where the language of those laws is clear,
we are not free to replace it with an unenacted legislative intent.” INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 452-53
(1987) (concurring).
281 United Savings Ass’n v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Associates, 484 U.S. 365, 371 (1988) (“only one of the
permissible meanings [of an ambiguous phrase] produces a substantive effect that is compatible with the rest of the
law”).
282 Compare United States v. Locke, 471 U.S. 84, 92 (1985) (a requirement that a filing be made “prior to December
31” could not be stretched to permit a filing on December 31) with Davis v. United States, 495 U.S. 472, 479 (1990)
(phrase “for the use of”—a phrase which “on its face ... could support any number of different meanings,” is narrowed
by reference to legislative history). In Locke the Court explained that “the plain language of the statute simply cannot
sustain the gloss appellees would put on it.... [W]ith respect to filing deadlines a literal reading of Congress’ words is
generally the only proper reading of those words. To attempt to decide whether some date other than the one set out in
the statute is the date actually ‘intended’ by Congress is to set sail on an aimless journey.” 471 U.S. at 93. Despite the
evident clarity of this language, three Justices dissented.
283 See generally WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE, JR., PHILLIP P. FRICKEY & ELIZABETH GARRETT, CASES & MATERIALS ON
LEGISLATION: STATUTES & THE CREATION OF PUBLIC Policy at 689-798 (4th ed. 2007) (historical survey, with example
cases, of theories of interpretation applied by the federal courts and the role of legislative history in them). .
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“collective understanding” on the matter at issue before the Court in the first place284).285 Adding
to this reluctance is the perception of some that the published history may be skewed by the
partisanship of committee staff or subject to interest group manipulation.286
More recently, some commentators and jurists who look at congressional processes have had a
different take. They, too, see complexity and fragmentation in Congress, but argue that one can
ascribe an “institutional purpose” to legislation even though the motives of individual legislators
may be unknown or unknowable. Under this “busy Congress” model, for example, congressional
committees, as specialists in their field, are regarded as reporting accurate accounts of
information and insight to their respective chambers so that Members may better consider
legislation they have limited knowledge of.287
The stuff of legislative history itself potentially comprises a wide variety of materials. On the one
hand, a current statute may be compared to its predecessors and differences among their language
and structure analyzed. This use is limited to examining language passed by Congress, which,
unlike materials attending congressional deliberations, is often thought to best reflect the intent of
Congress as a whole. Considering past statutes and their evolution is not a particularly
controversial exercise.288 On the other hand are the committee reports, hearings, floor debates,
and other records of deliberations and correspondence on legislation as it moves through the
legislative process. One aspect of examining this material can be to compare different versions of
a provision as it progresses, a use somewhat like the comparing of statutes to their predecessors,
but without each version having been approved by Congress as a whole.
Courts may read contemporaneous congressional materials for many reasons: background
information and context, explanations of specific legislative language, or expectations of how a
provision will be applied to the particular fact situation before them. Reliance on these materials
varies among courts, with the circumstances of a statute’s passage and its clarity or complexity
being factors. Courts also may be more willing to consult committee reports and the like for
insight into the particular problem Congress sought to address than they are to consult language
that purports to direct certain interpretations or outcomes. The nature of the issue before a court is
another variable that may bear on what materials the court uses and why.289
Among published history, some sources may be considered relatively more authoritative. As a
rule, committee report explanations, and especially those of conference committees, are
284 See, e.g., Frank H. Easterbrook, Statutes’ Domains, 50 U. CHI. L. REV. 533, 547 (1983) (“Because legislatures
comprise many members, they do not have “intents” or “designs,” hidden yet discoverable. Each member may or may
not have a design. The body as a whole, however, has only outcomes.”).
285 E.g., ANTONIN SCALIA, MATTER OF INTERPRETATION: FEDERAL COURTS AND THE LAW 31-34 (1997).
286 See, e.g., Blanchard v. Bergeron, 489 U.S. 87, 98-99 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring). The complexity and volume of
legislative materials also has been said to make use of legislative history malleable and susceptible of supporting any
number of outcomes. As an oft-quoted passage in an article by Judge Patricia Wald stated: “It sometimes seems that
citing legislative history is still ... akin to ‘looking over a crowd and picking out your friends.’” Patricia Wald,
Observations on the Use of Legislative History in the 1981 Supreme Court Term, 68 IOWA L. REV. 195, 214 (1983)
(quoting Judge Harold Leventhal).
287 See Stephen Breyer, On the Uses of Legislative History in Interpreting Statutes, 65 S. CAL. L. REV. 845 (1992); see
also Charles Tiefer, The Reconceptualization of Legislative History in the Supreme Court, 2000 WISC. L. REV. 205
(2000) (discussing the “Breyer-Stevens” concept of “institutional” legislative history).
288 See, e.g., Powerex Corp. v. Reliant Energy Services Inc., 551 U.S. 224, 231-32 (2007).
289 James J. Brudney & Corey Ditslear, The Warp and Woof of Statutory Interpretation: Comparing Supreme Court
Approaches in Tax Law and Workplace Law, 58 DUKE L.J. 1231 (2009).
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considered more persuasive and reliable than statements made during floor debates or hearings.
Within floor debates, statements of sponsors and explanations by floor managers are usually
accorded the most weight, and statements by other committee members of the reporting
committee[s] next. Floor statements by Members not associated with sponsorship or committee
consideration of a bill have little weight, and statements by bill opponents less weight still.
Hearings may be useful in providing background, less so as to illuminating the meaning of
particular language.
This hierarchy generally characterizes where a court might go to seek to clarify an unclear statute,
but several factors might tip the scales in favor of one bit of history or another of a particular bill.
Final language might have arisen from a floor amendment, in which case earlier reports and
debates may be of interest only as a point of contrast. Similarly, final language might have been
added by the second chamber to consider a bill, in which case the history developed in it would
be most pertinent, especially absent conference consideration. Also, a court’s willingness to delve
into the more remote reaches of legislative history can vary with the issue at hand and the point
sought to be clarified.
Again, courts may consult explanatory documents to gain a better feel for context or to shed light
on particular language. Reference to legislative history for background is commonplace. A
“proper construction frequently requires consideration of [a statute’s] wording against the
background of its legislative history and in the light of the general objectives Congress sought to
achieve.”290 Looking to published history to help explain the meaning of statutory terms291 may
be more controversial, either because contrary indications may be present in other passages of
legislative history,292 or because the degree of direction or detail may be an unwarranted
narrowing of a more general statutory text.293 The concern in the latter instances is whether the
legislative history is a plausible explanation of language actually contained in the statutory text,
or whether instead explanatory language (e.g., report language containing committee directives or
“understandings”) outpaces that text. As the Court observed in rejecting reliance on “excerpts”
said to reflect congressional intent to preempt state law, “we have never [looked for]
congressional intent in a vacuum, unrelated to the giving of meaning to an enacted statutory text
... [U]nenacted approvals, beliefs, and desires are not laws.”294
290 Wirtz v. Bottle Blowers Ass’n, 389 U.S. 463, 468 (1968). For examples of reliance on legislative history for
guidance on broad congressional purposes, see Shell Oil Co. v. Iowa Dep’t of Revenue, 488 U.S. 19, 26 (1988)
(purposes of OCSLA, as evidenced in legislative history, confirm a textual reading of the statute and refute the oil
company’s reading); Wilder v. Virginia Hosp. Ass’n, 496 U.S. 498, 515 (1990) (reference to Senate report for evidence
of “the primary objective” of the Boren amendment to the Medicaid law).
291 See, e.g., Reves v. Ernst & Young, 507 U.S. 170, 179-83 (1993) (RICO section proscribing “conduct” of
racketeering activity is limited to persons who participate in the operation or management of the enterprise); Gustafson
v. Alloyd Co., 513 U.S. 561, 581-82 (1995) (legislative history supports reading of “prospectus” in Securities Act as
being limited to initial public offerings); Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter, 515 U.S. 687, 704-06 (1995) (relying on
committee explanations of word “take” in Endangered Species Act).
292 The dissent in Babbitt v. Sweet Home found legislative history that suggested a narrower use of the word “take,”
reflecting a consistent distinction between habitat conservation measures and restrictions on “taking” of endangered
species. 515 U.S. at 726-30 (Justice Scalia).
293 “The language of a statute—particularly language expressly granting an agency broad authority—is not to be
regarded as modified by examples set forth in the legislative history.” Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. v. LTV Corp.,
496 U.S. 633, 649 (1990).
294 Puerto Rico Dep’t of Consumer Affairs v. Isla Petroleum Corp., 485 U.S. 495, 501 (1988). The Court explained
further that, “without a text that can, in light of those [legislative history] statements, plausibly be interpreted as
prescribing federal pre-emption it is impossible to find that a free market was mandated by federal law.” See also
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A distinct but related inquiry focuses not on the explanations that accompanied committee or
floor consideration, but rather on the sequence of changes in bill language. Consideration of the
“specific history of the legislative process that culminated in the [statute at issue] affords ... solid
ground for giving it appropriate meaning” and for resolving ambiguity present in statutory text.295
Selection of one House’s version over that of the other House may be significant.296 In some
circumstances rejection of an amendment or earlier version can be important,297 but there is no
general “rejected proposal rule.”298 While courts are naturally reluctant to attribute significance to
the failure of Congress to act,299 that reluctance may be overcome if it can be shown that
Congress considered and rejected bill language that would have adopted the very position being
urged upon the court.300
Even more than in the case of legislative language, discussed above, silence in the published
legislative history of a bill is seldom significant.301 There is no requirement that “every
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Secretary of the Interior v. California, 464 U.S. 312, 323 n.9 (1984) (a committee report directive purporting to require
coordination with state planning is dismissed as purely “precatory” when the accompanying bill plainly exempted
federal activities from such coordination); Shannon v. United States, 512 U.S. 573, 583 (1994) (Court will not give
“authoritative weight to a single passage of legislative history that is in no way anchored in the text of the statute”); and
Roeder v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 333 F.3d 228, 237-38 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (explanatory statement accompanying
conference report purported to explain a previous enactment rather than the current one, and could not operate to
abrogate an executive agreement). For what is arguably a departure from the general principle, see Wisconsin Project
on Nuclear Arms Control v. United States Dep’t of Commerce, 317 F.3d 275 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (relying on
“congressional intent” relating to a lapsed statute). As dissenting Judge Randolph characterized the majority’s
approach, “the statute has expired but its legislative history is good law.” Id. at 285.
295 United States v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp., 344 U.S. 218, 222 (1952). “Statutory history” as well as bill history
can also be important. See, e.g., United States v. Wells, 519 U.S. 482, 492-93 (1997) (consolidation of a number of
separate provisions supports the “natural reading” of the current law); Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731, 740 (2001)
(elimination of “the very term” relied on by the Court in an earlier case suggests that Congress desired to preclude that
result in future cases).
296 See, e.g., United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, 474 U.S. 121, 136-37 (1985) (attaching significance to the
conference committee’s choice of the Senate version, retaining the broad definition of “navigable waters” then in
current law, over a House version that would have narrowed the definition).
297 In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Court examined three provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act. In two of the
provisions, Congress had immediately restricted access to the courts by individuals in certain pending military
proceedings, but the third provision did not expressly limit access to the courts by individuals in pending proceedings
through petitions for writs of habeas corpus. The Court recounted that Congress had adopted its final language only
after having rejected versions that would have immediately curtailed habeas relief in pending cases: “Congress’
rejection of the very language that would have achieved the result the Government urges here weighs heavily against
the Government’s interpretation.” 548 U.S. 557, 579-80 (2006).
298 Compare Justice Scalia’s plurality opinion in Rapanos v. United States, which saw no significance in Congress’s
rejection of an amendment to overcome wetlands regulations, to Justice Stevens’s dissent, which saw such rejection as
evidence of acquiescence. 547 U.S. 715, 749-52, 797 (2006). For a leading example of reading acquiesce into an
extended history of congressional rejection of regulatory legislation, see FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.,
529 U.S. 120 (2000).
299 “This Court generally is reluctant to draw inferences from Congress’ failure to act. Indeed, those members of
Congress who did not support these bills may have been as convinced by testimony that the NGA already provided
‘broad and complete ... jurisdiction and control over the issuance of securities’ as by arguments that the matter was best
left to the States.” Schneidewind v. ANR Pipeline Co., 485 U.S. 293, 306 (1988).
300 Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. v. Energy Resources Conserv. & Dev. Comm’n, 461 U.S. 190, 220 (1983) (noting that
language had been deleted to insure that there be no preemption); INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 441-42
(1987) (rejection of Senate language limiting the Attorney General’s discretion in granting asylum in favor of House
language authorizing grant of asylum to any refugee); Doe v. Chao, 540 U.S. 614, 622 (2004) (“drafting history
show[s] that Congress cut the very language in the bill that would have authorized any presumed damages”).
301 “[A] statute is not to be confined to the ‘particular application[s] ... contemplated by the legislators.’” Diamond v.
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permissible application of a statute be expressly referred to in its legislative history.”302 The Court
does, however, occasionally attach import to the absence of any indication in a statute or its
legislative history of an intent to effect a “major change” in well-established law.303 And
sometimes the Justices disagree over the significance of congressional silence.304
Inferences Based on “Subsequent” Legislative History
Once a statute is enacted, later Congresses may comment on it or choose to revisit it (or not) as
circumstances change. Views expressed in the documents or deliberations of a subsequent
Congress generally are eschewed.305 It has been stated in this context that “[t]he legislative
history of a statute is the history of its consideration and enactment. ‘Subsequent legislative
history’—which presumably means the post-enactment history of a statute’s consideration and
enactment—is a contradiction in terms.”306
The Court also is wary about reading significance into the actions of a subsequent Congress,
having warned that they are “a hazardous basis for inferring the intent of an earlier one.’”307 To
the degree congressional action is considered (as opposed to the statutory language), it is the
enacting Congress that is key, and interpretation is ordinarily not affected by the several different
(...continued)
Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303, 315 (1980) (ruling that inventions not contemplated when Congress enacted the patent law
are still patentable if they fall within the law’s general language) (quoting Barr v. United States, 324 U.S. 83, 90
(1945)).
302 Moskal v. United States, 498 U.S. 103, 111 (1990). Accord, Pittston Coal Group v. Sebben, 488 U.S. 105, 115
(1988) (“it is not the law that a statute can have no effects which are not mentioned in its legislative history”); PBGC v.
LTV Corp., 496 U.S. 633, 649 (1990) (“the language of a statute—particularly language expressly granting an agency
broad authority—is not to be regarded as modified by examples set forth in the legislative history”). See also Oncale v.
Sundowner Offshore Servs., 523 U.S. 75, 79 (1998) (male-on-male sexual harassment is covered by Title VII although
it “was assuredly not the principal evil Congress was concerned with”); and Cook County v. United States ex rel.
Chandler, 538 U.S. 119, 128-29 (2003) (local governments are subject to qui tam actions under the expansive language
of the False Claims Act even though the enacting Congress was primarily concerned with fraud by Civil War
contractors).
303 Edmonds v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 443 U.S. 256, 266-27 (1979) (silence of legislative history “is
most eloquent, for such reticence while contemplating an important and controversial change in existing law is
unlikely”); United Savings Ass’n v. Timbers of Inwood Forest Assocs., 484 U.S. 365, 380 (1988) (major change
“would not likely have been made without specific provision in the text of the statute,” and it is “most improbable that
it would have been made without even any mention in the legislative history”); Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410, 419
(1992) (Court reluctant to interpret the Bankruptcy Code as effecting “a major change in pre-Code practice that is not
the subject of at least some discussion in the legislative history”).
304 Compare Justice Stevens’s opinion for the Court in Chisom v. Roemer, 501 U.S. 380, 396 n.23 (1991) (“Congress’
silence in this regard can be likened to the dog that did not bark.”) with Justice Scalia’s dissenting rejoinder, id. at 406
(“Apart from the questionable wisdom of assuming that dogs will bark when something important is happening, we
have forcefully and explicitly rejected the Conan Doyle approach to statutory construction in the past.”).
305 Sullivan v. Finkelstein, 496 U.S. 617, 628 n.8 (1990). An extensive, long-running record of hearings and statements
across subsequent Congresses may, in combination with other factors, weigh in favor of interpreting a statute narrowly.
See FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 147-55(2000).
306 Sullivan, 496 U.S. at 631 (Scalia, J., concurring in part). Elsewhere, Justice Scalia has stated that “[r]eal (pre-
enactment) legislative history is persuasive to some because it is thought to shed light on what legislators understood an
ambiguous statutory text to mean when they voted to enact it. But post-enactment legislative history by definition
‘could have had no effect on the congressional vote.’” Bruesewitz v. Wyeth LLC, 562 U.S. ___, No. 09-152, slip op. at
18 (February 22, 2011), quoting District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 605 (2008).
307 Mackey v. Lanier Collection Agency & Serv., 486 U.S. 825, 840 (1988) (quoting United States v. Price, 361 U.S.
304, 313 (1960)).
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kinds of congressional actions and inactions frequently characterized as “post-enactment history.”
However, depending on context, including intervening developments, what a subsequent
Congress does may have interpretational value.
Subsequent Legislation
If the views of a later Congress are expressed in a duly enacted statute, then the views embodied
in that statute must be interpreted and applied. Occasionally a later enactment declares
congressional intent about interpretation of an earlier enactment rather than directly amending or
clarifying the earlier law. Such action can be given prospective effect because, “however
inartistic, it ... stands on its own feet as a valid enactment.”308 “Subsequent legislation declaring
the intent of an earlier statute is entitled to great weight in statutory construction.”309 Other
statutes may be expressly premised on a particular interpretation of an earlier statute; this
interpretation may be given effect, especially if a contrary interpretation would render the
amendments pointless or ineffectual.310
The Court closely adheres to judicial precedents in interpreting statutes, on the grounds that
Congress is free to supersede the Court’s interpretation of a particular statute through subsequent
legislation. But it may not always be evident exactly how far Congress went in subsequent
legislation to sweep aside an earlier construction. For example, when Congress acts narrowly
against a result in a Court decision, is it also discrediting the Court’s reasoning that led to the
result? A female employee who is adversely affected by a discriminatory seniority system is
barred from relief under a Supreme Court decision that holds Title VII’s statute of limitation
clock is intended to tick solely from the time of the discriminatory act, not from the time harm is
realized.311 Congress adopts a provision that specifies time of harm as restarting the statute of
limitations clock for those discriminated against under a seniority system. Later, a female brings
suit alleging that she had been discriminated against in raise decisions over time and that
consequently her pay continued to be lower than that of men in similar positions. Is the Court’s
more general “time of the act” interpretation in the seniority case still to be accorded weight in
the later raise discrimination case, even though the interpretation no longer pertains in a seniority
system context? In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., five Justices substantially
relied on the earlier interpretation to hold that the raise discrimination was barred by the statute of
limitations, over the objection of a four-Justice dissent.312
308 REED DICKERSON, THE INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION OF STATUTES 179 (1975).
309 Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 380-81 (1969). By contrast, a “mere statement in a conference
report ... as to what the Committee believes an earlier statute meant is obviously less weighty” because Congress has
not “proceeded formally through the legislative process.” South Carolina v. Regan, 465 U.S. 367, 379 n.17 (1984).
310 Mount Sinai Hosp. v. Weinberger, 517 F.2d 329, 343 (5th Cir. 1975), quoted with approval in Bell v. New Jersey,
461 U.S. 773, 785 n.12 (1983). See also Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith v. Curran, 456 U.S. 343, 382-87
(1982), relying on congressional intent to preserve an implied private right of action as the reason for a “savings
clause” on court jurisdiction. In FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 156 (2000), the Court
ruled that, because legislation restricting the advertising and labeling of tobacco products had been premised on an
understanding that the FDA lacked jurisdiction over tobacco, Congress had “effectively ratified” that interpretation of
FDA authority. Additionally, the labeling statutes were “incompatible” with FDA jurisdiction in one “important
respect”—although supervision of product labeling is a “substantial component” of the FDA’s regulatory authority, the
tobacco labeling laws “explicitly prohibit any federal agency from imposing any health-related labeling requirements
on ... tobacco products.”
311 Lorance v. AT&T Technologies, Inc., 490 U.S. 900 (1989).
312 550 U.S. 618 (2007). On January 29, 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was enacted as P.L. 111-2.
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Reenactment
If Congress reenacts a statute and leaves unchanged a provision that had received a definitive
administrative or judicial interpretation, the Court sometimes holds that Congress has ratified that
interpretation.313 The stated rationale is that “Congress is presumed to be aware of an
administrative or judicial interpretation of a statute and to adopt that interpretation when it re-
enacts a statute without change.”314 Similarly, if Congress in enacting a new statute incorporates
sections of an earlier one, “Congress normally can be presumed to have had knowledge of the
interpretation given to the incorporated law, at least insofar as it affects the new statute.”315
However, congressional ratification of a judicial interpretation will not be inferred from
reenactment unless “the supposed judicial consensus [is] so broad and unquestioned that
Congress knew of and endorsed it.”316 Also, the reenactment presumption is usually indulged only
if the history of enactment shows that Congress conducted a comprehensive review of the
reenacted or incorporated statute, and changed those aspects deemed undesirable.317 Though the
presumption can come into play in the absence of evidence that Congress directly considered the
issue at hand, the Court may require other indicia of congressional awareness of the issue before
reading significance into reenactment. Congress may have simply overlooked the matter, or may
have intended to leave it “for authoritative resolution in the courts.”318
Acquiescence
Congressional inaction is sometimes construed as approving or “acquiescing” in an
administrative or judicial interpretation.319 There is no general presumption that congressional
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Criticizing the Supreme Court in its finding, the act restarts the statute of limitation clock on compensation claims each
time harm is realized from past unlawful discrimination (including each paycheck). Also, the act explicitly extends
beyond Title VII to claims under other specified civil rights laws. For an extended discussion of the persistence of more
general interpretations beyond narrow congressional overrides, see Deborah A. Widiss, Shadow Precedents and the
Separation of Powers, 84 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 511 (2009).
313 Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U.S. 552, 567 (1988) (reenactment of “a statute that had in fact been given a consistent
judicial interpretation ... generally includes the settled judicial interpretation”). See also Farragher v. City of Boca
Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 792 (1998) (“[T]he force of precedent here is enhanced by Congress’s amendment to the liability
provisions of Title VII since the Meritor decision, without providing any modification of our holding.”). In Pierce,
however, a committee report’s approving reference to a minority viewpoint was dismissed as not representing a “settled
judicial interpretation,” since 12 of the 13 appellate circuits had ruled to the contrary. See also Metropolitan Stevedore
Co. v. Rambo, 515 U.S. 291, 299 (1995) (reenactment carried with it no endorsement of appellate court decisions that
were not uniform and some of which misread precedent).
314 Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith v. Curran, 456 U.S. 343, 382 n.66 (1982), quoting Lorillard v. Pons, 434
U.S. 575, 580 (1978).
315 Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 581 (1978).
316 Jama v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 543 U.S. 335, 349-52 (2005).
317 Lorillard, 434 U.S. at 582. The Court “bluntly” rejects ratification arguments if Congress “has not comprehensively
revised a statutory scheme but has made only isolated amendments.” Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 292 (2001)
(also expressing more general misgivings about the ratification doctrine’s reliance on congressional inaction).
318 Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc., 401 U.S. 321, 336 n.7 (1971). “[C]ongressional inaction is perhaps
the weakest of all tools for ascertaining legislative intent, and courts are loath to presume congressional endorsement
unless the issue plainly has been the subject of congressional attention. Extensive hearings, repeated efforts at
legislative correction, and public controversy may be indicia of Congress’s attention to the subject.” Butterbaugh v.
Department of Justice, 336 F.3d 1332, 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (citations omitted).
319 Although acquiescence and reenactment are similar in that each involves an inference that Congress has chosen to
leave an interpretation unchanged, there is a fundamental difference: reenactment purports to involve interpretation of
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inaction in the face of interpretation bespeaks acquiescence, and there is no consistent pattern of
application by the Court. When the Court does infer acquiescence, the most important factor
seems to be congressional awareness that an interpretation has generated widespread attention
and controversy.320 As with reenactment, however, there are other inferences that can be drawn
from congressional silence.321
“Isolated Statements”
Although congressional inaction or silence is sometimes accorded importance in interpreting an
earlier enactment, post-enactment explanations or expressions of opinion by committees or
members are often dismissed as “isolated statements” or “subsequent legislative history” not
entitled to much if any weight. As the Court has noted, statements as to what a committee
believes an earlier enactment meant are “obviously entitled to less weight” than is subsequent
legislation declaring such intent, because in the case of the committee statement Congress had not
“proceeded formally through the legislation process.”322 The Court has also explained that
“isolated statements by individual Members of Congress or its committees, all made after
enactment of the statute under consideration, cannot substitute for a clear expression of legislative
intent at the time of enactment.”323 “It is the function of the courts and not the Legislature, much
less a Committee of one House of the Legislature, to say what an enacted statute means.”324 The
disfavor in which post-enactment explanations are held is sometimes expressed more strongly
when the views are those of a single member. The Court has declared that “post hoc observations
by a single member carry little if any weight.”325
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duly enacted legislation, while acquiescence attributes significance to Congress’s failure to act. Cf. INS v. Chadha, 462
U.S. 919 (1983) (Congress may legislate only in conformity with the bicameralism and presentment requirements of
Art. I, §7). At times, acquiescence and reenactment have been used in tandem. See Zuni Pub. Sch. Dist. No. 89 v.
Department of Educ., 550 U.S. 81, 90-91 (2007).
320 In Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U.S. 574, 601 (1983), for example, the Court, in finding congressional
acquiescence in a revenue ruling that denied tax-exempt status to educational institutions with racially discriminatory
policies, pointed to inaction on a number of bills introduced to overturn the ruling as evidencing Congress’s “prolonged
and acute awareness of so important an issue.” See also United States v. Rutherford, 442 U.S. 544 (1979) (finding
acquiescence, and pointing to congressional hearings as evidencing congressional awareness of FDA policy). On the
other hand, failure to include in an amendment language addressing an interpretation described as then-prevailing in a
memo placed in the Congressional Record is “too slender a reed” on which to base an inference of congressional
acquiescence. McLaughlin v. Richland Shoe Co., 486 U.S. 128, 132 n.8 (1988).
321 “The ‘complicated check on legislation’ ... erected by our Constitution creates an inertia that makes it impossible to
assert with any degree of assurance that congressional failure to act represents (1) approval of the status quo, as
opposed to (2) inability to agree upon how to alter the status quo, (3) unawareness of the status quo, (4) indifference to
the status quo, or even (5) political cowardice.” Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 480 U.S. 616, 672 (1987) (Justice
Scalia, dissenting).
322 Consumer Product Safety Comm’n v. GTE Sylvania, 447 U.S. 102, 118 n.13 (1980) (dismissing as not “entitled to
much weight here” a statement at hearings made by the bill’s sponsor four years after enactment, and language in a
conference report on amendments, also four years after enactment).
323 Southeastern Community College v. Davis, 442 U.S. 397, 411 n.11 (1979) (dismissing 1974 committee report
language and 1978 floor statements purporting to explain 1973 enactment). See also Los Angeles Dep’t of Water &
Power v. Manhart, 435 U.S. 702, 714 (1978) (one member’s “isolated comment on the Senate floor” a year after
enactment “cannot change the effect of the plain language of the statute itself”).
324 NLRB v. Health Care & Retirement Corp., 511 U.S. 571, 582 (1994) (“isolated statement” in 1974 committee report
accompanying amendments to other sections of act is not “authoritative interpretation” of language enacted in 1947).
325 Bread Political Action Comm. v. FEC, 455 U.S. 577, 582 n.3 (1982) (1977 litigation affidavit of a Senator and his
aide as to intent in drafting a 1974 floor amendment cannot be given “probative weight” because such statements, made
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Presidential Signing Statements
Under the Constitution, the President’s formal role in enacting statutes is one of “take it or leave
it.” Article I, section 7, clause 2 provides that, after Congress passes a bill and presents it to the
President, “if he approves he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that
House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal,
and proceed to reconsider it.” Thus, the recording of a President’s views as part of the
constitutional lawmaking process is limited to objections attending a veto. Also, the President
may not amend the language of a presented bill before acting on it. Nor may the President pick
and choose which provisions of a presented bill to sign into law, while vetoing others. The
President’s options are “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on a bill in its entirety.326 The President
may have an integral role in the enactment of statutes into law, but “[a]ll legislative Powers”
reside in Congress,327 and it is exclusively up to the Houses of Congress, at least formally, to
come to common agreement on statutory language.
Nevertheless, recent Presidents have frequently used the occasion of signing a bill into law to
issue statements that contend that portions of the bill are unconstitutional, claim a law is of
limited application, or otherwise signal that a law will be implemented strictly in accord with the
President’s views of the office’s prerogatives and authorities.328 Assertions in signing statements
vary in specificity and purported scope; the statements would not appear to have any immediate,
direct legal effect in and of themselves; and they may best be understood in the context of the
enduring tension between the political branches over accountability, control of executive
agencies, and similar institutional concerns.329 At the same time, Administrations since the 1980s
have asserted that signing statements have weight as legislative history and should be taken into
account by courts.330 There is no legal impediment to a President commenting on a statute’s
meaning in a signing statement,331 and the political reality is that an Administration is not a
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after enactment, represent only the “personal views” of the legislator). But see North Haven Bd. of Educ. v. Bell, 456
U.S. 512, 530-31 (1982), citing a bill summary placed in the Congressional Record by the bill’s sponsor after passage,
and explanatory remarks made two years later by the same sponsor; and Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. v. Energy Resources
Conserv. & Dev. Comm’n, 461 U.S. 190, 220 n.23 (1983) (relying on a 1965 explanation by “an important figure in the
drafting of the 1954 [Atomic Energy] Act”).
326 Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998).
327 U.S. CONST., art. I, §1.
328 Signing statements have a long history, but their frequency and intent changed beginning with the Reagan
Administration. WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE, JR., PHILLIP P. FRICKEY & ELIZABETH GARRETT, CASES & MATERIALS ON
LEGISLATION: STATUTES & THE CREATION OF PUBLIC Policy at 1043-44 (4th ed. 2007).
329 See CRS Report RL33667, Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications, by Todd
Garvey.
330 In a 1986, Samuel A. Alito Jr., then a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, drafted
a memorandum to a Litigation Strategy Working Group on how “to ensure that Presidential signing statements assume
their rightful place in the interpretation of legislation.... [I]n interpreting statutes, both the courts and litigants (including
lawyers in the Executive branch) invariably speak of “legislative” or “congressional” intent. Rarely if ever do courts or
litigants inquire into the President’s intent. Why is this so?” He proceeded to review potential obstacles to wider
acceptance and proposed a course of action for overcoming them.
331 A report by a task force of the American Bar Association that was critical of the types of constitutional and
institutional assertions being made in presidential signing statements apparently had no objection to the President using
signing statements to voice views on the meaning, purpose, or significance of bills. American Bar Association, Report
of the Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine at 5 (2006).
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passive spectator during congressional deliberations.332 Often, the Administration forwards draft
legislation for introduction, and liaisons from the executive branch regularly communicate its
views on bills as they proceed. If the President or the Administration worked closely with
Congress in developing legislation, and if the approved version incorporated the President’s
recommendations, reference to a signing statement may help complete the picture of a bill’s
purpose, especially in the absence of published congressional documents on a bill.333 The same
might also be said with respect to bills whose final content arose from compromise negotiations
between the Administration and Congress.334
Citation of signing statements may be more controversial when statutory language appears clear
or the meaning attributed in a signing statement conflicts with congressional history. Congress
has no opportunity during the legislative process to respond as an institution to a characterization
in a signing statement.335 Giving the President “the last word” on the meaning of a bill he
approves, it may be pointed out, stands in contrast to the procedure for congressional
consideration of the President’s objections in the case of a vetoed bill.
There is no consensus as to whether courts should rely at all on signing statements: there has been
no definitive ruling by the Supreme Court,336 and even lower courts have seldom had to resolve
cases that require a choice between conflicting presidential and congressional interpretations.337
Presidents’ routine use of signing statements to try to influence statutory interpretation by courts
is a relatively recent development,338 Courts cite signing statements from time to time, but usually
in situations where the interpretation is not critical to case outcome.339
332 See, e.g., Frank B. Cross, The Constitutional Legitimacy and Significance of Presidential “Signing Statements,” 40
ADMIN. L. REV. 209 (1988).
333 “It may ... be appropriate for the President, when signing legislation, to explain what his (and Congress’s) intention
was in making the legislation law, particularly if the Administration has played a significant part in moving the
legislation through Congress.” Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, “The Legal Significance of Presidential
Signing Statements,” 17 U.S. Op. Off. Legal Counsel 131, 136 (1993).
334 “[T]hough in some circumstances there is room for doubt as to the weight to be accorded a presidential signing
statement in illuminating congressional intent ..., President Reagan’s views are significant here because the Executive
Branch participated in the negotiation of the compromise legislation.” United States v. Story, 891 F.2d 988, 994 (2d
Cir. 1989).
335 See Marc N. Garber & Kurt A. Wimmer, Presidential Signing Statements as Interpretations of Legislative Intent: An
Executive Aggrandizement of Power, 24 HARV. J ON LEGIS. 363, 367 (1987) (“The danger inherent in [an ‘executive
history’ statement] is that its author will graft ambiguities and exceptions onto an act that was not so encumbered
during the legislative process....”). Compare Curtis A. Bradley & Eric A. Posner, Presidential Signing Statements and
Executive Power, 23 CONST. COMMENTARY 307, 344-47 (2006).
336 In seeking a writ of certiorari in Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State, 571 F.3d 1227 (D.C. Cir. 2009), petitioner, inter
alia, challenged the legal effect of a signing statement. Brief of the Petitioner at 15-18, Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State
(U.S., November 24, 2010), cert. granted sub nom. M.B.Z. v. Clinton, No. 10-699 (May 2, 2011). Though the Court
decided to hear the case, neither the legal effect nor the persuasive weight of the signing statement issue was briefed or
argued on the merits.
337 See, e.g., William D. Popkin, Judicial Use of Presidential Legislative History: A Critique, 66 IND. L.J. 699 (1991);
Brad Waites, Let Me Tell You What You Mean: An Analysis of Presidential Signing Statements, 21 GA. L. REV. 755
(1987); Marc N. Garber and Kurt A. Wimmer, Presidential Signing Statements as Interpretations of Legislative Intent:
An Executive Aggrandizement of Power, 24 HARV. J. ON LEGIS. 363 (1987); Frank B. Cross, The Constitutional
Legitimacy and Significance of Presidential “Signing Statements,” 40 ADMIN. L. REV. 209 (1988); Kristy L. Carroll,
Comment, Whose Statute Is It Anyway?: Why and How Courts Should Use Presidential Signing Statements When
Interpreting Federal Statutes, 46 CATH U. L. REV. 475 (1997); Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, “The
Legal Significance of Presidential Signing Statements,” 17 U.S. Op. Off. Legal Counsel 131 (1993).
338 President Andrew Jackson used a signing statement in 1830, and in 1842 an ad hoc congressional committee
strongly condemned President Tyler for having filed a statement of his reasons for signing a bill (See 4 Hinds’
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Judicial reluctance to consider signing statements would not appear to be contrary to judicial
deference to agency action. Deference is premised on the conclusion that Congress has, by
statute, authorized the agency to “speak with the force of law” through a rulemaking or other
formal process. Congress has not authorized the President (or, indirectly, an agency) to speak with
the force of law through signing statements. So, although signing statements may influence or
even control agency implementation of statutes, it is the implementation, and not the signing
statement itself, that would be measured against the statute’s requirements.340 At most, signing
statements might be considered analogous to informal agency actions, entitled to respect only to
the extent that they have the power to persuade.341
Author Contact Information
Larry M. Eig
Specialist in American Public Law
leig@crs.loc.gov, 7-7896
Acknowledgments
This report was originally prepared by George Costello. It has been revised and updated by Larry M. Eig,
who is available to answer questions on these issues.
(...continued)
Precedents §3492), but routine use of signing statements began during the Reagan Administration, when Attorney
General Meese persuaded West Publishing Company to include the President’s signing statements with legislative
histories published in United States Code Congressional and Administrative News. The Attorney General explained
this as facilitating availability of signing statements to courts “for future construction of what the statute actually
means.” Address by Attorney General Edwin Meese, III, National Press Club (February 25, 1986). Presidents since
Reagan have continued this practice.
339 See, e.g., Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State, 571 F.3d 1227 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (citing President George W. Bush’s
signing statement on non-binding nature of a provision authorizing designation of Israel as place of birth on the
passport of a U.S. citizen born in Jerusalem), cert. granted sub nom. M.B.Z. v. Clinton, No. 10-699 (May 2, 2011);
United States v. Perlaza, 439 F.3d 1149, 1163 (9th Cir. 2006) (citing President Clinton’s signing statement to reinforce
statement of purpose in the conference report); Berry v. Department of Justice, 733 F.2d 1343, 1349 (9th Cir. 1984)
(citing signing statement as well as congressional committee reports as affirming one of the broad goals of the Freedom
of Information Act); Clifton D. Mayhew, Inc. v. Wirtz, 413 F.2d 658, 661-62 (4th Cir. 1969) (cited as elaborating on
floor manager’s explanation of good-faith defense in Portal-to-Portal Act); United States v. Yacoubian, 24 F.3d 1, 8 (9th
Cir. 1994) (cited along with conference report to establish rational purpose of statute); Taylor v. Heckler, 835 F.2d
1037, 1044 n.17 (3d Cir. 1987) (refusing to consider a signing statement that was “largely inconsistent” with legislative
history on which the court had previously relied); Caruth v. United States, 688 F. Supp. 1129, 1146 n.11(N.D. Tex.
1987) (relying extensively on legislative history but refusing to give “any weight” to signing statements).
340 If Congress has directed that the President rather than an agency implement a statute, then, by analogy, it can be
argued that Congress has implicitly delegated to the President whatever policymaking authority is necessary to fill in
gaps and implement the statutory rule. But here again, the signing statement would not usually constitute an act of
implementation.
341 The Constitution’s vesting in the President of the executive power and of the duty to “take care that the laws be
faithfully executed” implies authority to interpret the law in order to determine how to execute it, but this implicit
authority would not appear to require change to the Chevron/Skidmore deference approaches.
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