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Page Number: 32.0

6 

FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT BD. FOR 
PUERTO RICO v. AURELIUS INVESTMENT, LLC 
THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment 

“Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges 
of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United 
States.”  Art. II, §2, cl. 2.  Each of the officers specifically 
mentioned  in  the  Clause—“Ambassadors,”  “public  Minis-
ters,” “Consuls,” and “Judges of the supreme Court”—holds 
an office that exercises national power.  Ibid.  Although not 
dispositive, this fact suggests that the phrase “and all other
Officers of the United States” refers to “other” officers of the 
National Government.  See Beecham v. United States, 511 
U. S. 368, 371 (1994) (“That several items in a list share an
attribute counsels in favor of interpreting the other items
as possessing that attribute as well”); see also A. Scalia & 
B. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 
195–198  (2012)  (discussing  the  “associated-words  canon,” 
also known as noscitur a sociis). 

2 

Historical evidence from the founding era confirms that 
officers exercising Article IV territorial power are not “Of-
ficers of the United States.”  The Court acknowledges some 
of this evidence and surveys the history of appointments in 
Puerto  Rico.  Ante,  at  8–14.  I,  however,  would  give  more
weight  and  focus  to  the  practices  of  the  First  Congress, 
which  provide  “powerful  evidence  of  the  original  under-
standing of the Constitution.”  Comptroller of Treasury of 
Md. v. Wynne, 575 U. S. 542, 580 (2015) (THOMAS, J., dis-
senting)  (compiling  cases  relying  on  the  practices  of  the
First Congress to interpret the Constitution). 

Before the Constitution’s ratification, the Northwest Or-
dinance  of  1787  set  up  a  territorial  government  for  the
Northwest Territory.  Act of Aug. 7, 1789, 1 Stat. 51, n. (a)
(reproducing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 enacted by 
the  Continental  Congress).  This  ordinance  granted  Con-
gress the power to appoint the Northwest Territory’s Gov-
ernor, secretary, judges, and general militia officers.  Ibid.