Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1011_mkhn.pdf
Page Number: 28.0

Cite as:  586 U. S. ____ (2019) 

9 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

In  light  of  this  history,  how  likely  is  it  that  Congress,
seeking to “satisfy in full the requirements of . . . interna-
tional  organizations  conducting  activities  in  the  United 
States,”  S.  Rep.  No.  861,  at  2–3  (emphasis  added),  would 
have  understood  the  statute  to  take  from  many  interna-
tional  organizations  with  one  hand  the  immunity  it  had 
given them with the other?  If Congress wished the Act to 
carry out one of its core purposes—fulfilling the country’s
international  commitments—Congress  would  not  have
wanted the statute to change over time, taking on a mean-
ing that would fail to grant not only full, but even partial,
immunity to many of those organizations. 

B 
Congress also intended to facilitate international organ-
izations’  ability  to  pursue  their  missions  in  the  United 
States.  To illustrate why that purpose is better served by 
a static interpretation, consider in greater detail the work 
of  the  organizations  to  which  Congress  wished  to  provide 
broad  immunity.  Put  the  IMF  to  the  side,  for  Congress 
enacted  a  separate  statute  providing  it  with  immunity 
(absent  waiver)  in  all  cases.  See  22  U. S. C.  §286h.    But 
UNRRA, the World Bank, the FAO, and the  UN itself all 
originally  depended  upon  the  Immunities  Act  for  the 
immunity they sought.

Consider,  for  example,  the  mission  of  UNRRA.  The 
United States and other nations created that organization 
in  1943,  as  the  end  of World  War  II  seemed  in  sight.    Its 
objective  was,  in  the  words  of  President  Roosevelt,  to 
“ ‘assure  a  fair  distribution  of  available  supplies  among’ ” 
those liberated in World War II, and “ ‘to ward off death by 
starvation or exposure among these peoples.’ ”  1 G. Wood-
bridge, UNRRA: The History of the United Nations Relief
and  Rehabilitation  Administration  3  (1950).   By  the  time
Congress passed the Immunities Act in 1945, UNRRA had 
obtained  and  shipped  billions  of  pounds  of  food,  clothing,