Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-543_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 35.0

4 

YELLEN v. CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF CHEHALIS 
RESERVATION 
GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

  The  question  before  us  thus  becomes  whether  ANCs 
count as “Indian tribes” under the longstanding terms Con-
gress adopted in ISDA almost 50 years ago.  To resolve that 
dispositive question, we must answer two subsidiary ones:  
(1)  Does  the  statute’s  final  clause  (call  it  the  recognition 
clause) apply to the ANCs listed earlier?  (2) If so, are ANCs 
“recognized as eligible for the special programs and services 
provided by the United States to Indians because of their 
status as Indians”?  In my view, the recognition clause does 
apply  to  ANCs  along  with  the  other  listed  entities.    And 
ANCs are not “recognized” as tribes eligible for the special 
programs and services provided by the United States to In-
dians because of their status as Indians. 

II 
A 
  Start  with  the  question  whether  the  recognition  clause 
applies to the ANCs.  As the nearest referent and part of an 
integrated list of other modified terms, ANCs must be sub-
ject  to  its  terms.    Unsurprisingly,  the  Court  of  Appeals 
reached  this  conclusion  unanimously.    Lawyers  often  de-
bate  whether  a  clause  at  the  end  of  a  series  modifies  the 
entire  list  or  only  the  last  antecedent.    E.g.,  Lockhart  v. 
United States, 577 U. S. 347, 350–352 (2016); id., at 362–
369 (KAGAN, J., dissenting); Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 
U. S.  ___,  ___–___  (2021)  (slip  op.,  at  5–7);  id.,  at  ___–___ 
(ALITO,  J.,  concurring  in  judgment)  (slip  op.,  at  1–4).    In 
ISDA, for example, some might wonder whether the recog-
nition clause applies only to ANCs or whether it also applies 
to the previously listed entities—“Indian tribe[s], band[s], 
nation[s],” etc.  But it would be passing strange to suggest 
that the recognition clause applies to everything except the 
term immediately preceding it.  A clause that leaps over its 
nearest  referent  to  modify  every  other  term  would  defy 
grammatical gravity and common sense alike.  See, e.g., Fa-