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4 

TRUMP v. MAZARS USA, LLP 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

not. 

I  have  previously  explained  that  “the  founding  genera-
tion did not subscribe to Blackstone’s view of parliamentary 
supremacy.”  Department of Transportation v. Association 
of American Railroads, 575 U. S. 43, 74 (2015) (opinion con-
curring in judgment).  “Parliament’s violations of the law of 
the land had been a significant complaint of the American
Revolution.”  Id., at 74–75.  “And experiments in legislative 
supremacy in the States had confirmed the idea that even
the legislature must be made subject to the law.”  Id., at 75. 
James Wilson, signer of the Constitution and future Jus-
tice, explained this difference to the Pennsylvania ratifying 
convention:  “Blackstone  will  tell  you,  that  in  Britain  [the 
supreme power] is lodged in the British Parliament; and I
believe there is no writer on the other side of the Atlantic” 
who thought otherwise.  2 Documentary History of the Rat-
ification of the Constitution 471 (M. Jensen ed. 1976) (Doc-
umentary History).  In the United States, however, “the su-
preme,  absolute,  and  uncontrollable  authority,  remains 
with  the  people.”  Id.,  at  472.  And  “[t]he  Constitution
plainly  sets  forth  the  ‘few  and  defined’  powers  that  Con-
gress may exercise.”  Comstock, 560 U. S., at 159 (THOMAS, 
J., dissenting); see also McCulloch, 4 Wheat., at 405; Mar-
bury, 1 Cranch, at 176.  This significant difference means 
that Parliament’s powers and Congress’ powers are not nec-
essarily the same.

In fact, the plain text of the Constitution makes clear that
they are not.  The Constitution expressly denies to Congress 
some of the powers that Parliament exercised.  Article I, for 
example, prohibits bills of attainder, §9, cl. 3, which Parlia-
ment used to “sentenc[e] to death one or more specific per-
sons.”  United States v. Brown, 381 U. S. 437, 441 (1965).  A 
legislature can hardly be considered supreme if it lacks the
power to pass bills of attainder, which Justice Story called 
the “highest power of sovereignty.”  3 Commentaries on the