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FDA v. BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CORP.

Breyer, J., dissenting

traditional view was largely premised on a perceived inabil-
ity to prove the necessary statutory “intent” requirement.
See, e. g., FDA Enforcement Letter 240 (“The statutory basis
for the exclusion of tobacco products from FDA’s jurisdiction
is the fact that tobacco marketed for chewing or smoking
without accompanying therapeutic claims, does not meet the
deﬁnitions .
. for food, drug, device or cosmetic”). The
statement, “we cannot assert jurisdiction over substance X
unless it is treated as a food,” would not bar jurisdiction if
the agency later establishes that substance X is, and is in-
tended to be, eaten. The FDA’s denials of tobacco-related
authority sufﬁciently resemble this kind of statement that
they should not make the critical interpretive difference.

.

Second, one might claim that courts, when interpreting
statutes, should assume in close cases that a decision
with “enormous social consequences,” 1994 Hearings 69,
should be made by democratically elected Members of Con-
gress rather than by unelected agency administrators.
Cf. Kent v. Dulles, 357 U. S. 116, 129 (1958) (assuming Con-
gress did not want to delegate the power to make rules inter-
If there is
fering with exercise of basic human liberties).
such a background canon of interpretation, however, I do not
believe it controls the outcome here.

Insofar as the decision to regulate tobacco reﬂects the pol-
icy of an administration, it is a decision for which that admin-
istration, and those politically elected ofﬁcials who support
it, must (and will) take responsibility. And the very impor-
tance of the decision taken here, as well as its attendant pub-
licity, means that the public is likely to be aware of it and to
hold those ofﬁcials politically accountable. Presidents, just
like Members of Congress, are elected by the public.
In-
deed, the President and Vice President are the only public
ofﬁcials whom the entire Nation elects.
I do not believe that
an administrative agency decision of this magnitude—one
that is important, conspicuous, and controversial—can es-
cape the kind of public scrutiny that is essential in any de-