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CLINTON v. CITY OF NEW YORK

Opinion of the Court

its decision, the District Court also held that the Act “imper-
missibly disrupts the balance of powers among the three
Ibid.
branches of government.”

III

As in the prior challenge to the Line Item Veto Act, we
initially confront jurisdictional questions. The appellees in-
voked the jurisdiction of the District Court under the section
of the Act entitled “Expedited review.” That section, 2
U. S. C. § 692(a)(1) (1994 ed., Supp. II), expressly authorizes
“[a]ny Member of Congress or any individual adversely af-
fected” by the Act to bring an action for declaratory judg-
ment or injunctive relief on the ground that any provision of
the Act is unconstitutional. Although the Government did
not question the applicability of that section in the District
Court, it now argues that, with the exception of Mike Cran-
ney, the appellees are not “individuals” within the meaning
of § 692(a)(1). Because the argument poses a jurisdictional
question (although not one of constitutional magnitude), it is
not waived by the failure to raise it in the District Court.
The fact that the argument did not previously occur to the
able lawyers for the Government does, however, conﬁrm our
view that in the context of the entire section Congress un-
doubtedly intended the word “individual” to be construed as
synonymous with the word “person.” 13

The special section authorizing expedited review evi-
dences an unmistakable congressional interest in a prompt
and authoritative judicial determination of the constitution-

13 Although in ordinary usage both “individual” and “person” often refer
to an individual human being, see, e. g., Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary 1152, 1686 (1986) (“individual” deﬁned as a “single human
being”; “person” deﬁned as “an individual human being”), “person” often
has a broader meaning in the law, see, e. g., 1 U. S. C. § 1 (“person” includes
“corporations, companies, associations, ﬁrms, partnerships, societies, and
joint stock companies, as well as individuals”).