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Page Number: 15.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

11 

Opinion of the Court 

United States, 524 U. S. 125, 127–128 (1998) (choosing be-
tween ordinary meanings of “carry”).  Here, the context of 
these words—the water in which they swim—indicates that 
Congress used them as terms of art. 
  Statutory history is an important part of this context.  In 
1885, Congress enacted a law that would become the tem-
plate for clause (iv).  That law prohibited “knowingly assist-
ing, encouraging or soliciting” immigration under a contract 
to perform labor.  Act of Feb. 26, 1885, ch. 164, §3, 23 Stat. 
333 (1885  Act)  (emphasis  added).   Then,  as  now, “encour-
age” had a specialized meaning that channeled accomplice 
liability.  See 1 Bouvier, Law Dictionary 30 (“abet” means 
“[t]o  encourage  or  set  another  on  to  commit  a  crime”); 
Black’s Law Dictionary 6 (1891) (to “abet” is “[t]o encourage, 
incite, or set another on to commit a crime”).  And the words 
“assisting” and “soliciting,” which appeared alongside “en-
couraging” in the 1885 Act, reinforce that Congress gave the 
word  “encouraging”  its  narrower  criminal-law  meaning.  
See Dubin v. United States, 599 U. S. ___, ___ (2023) (slip 
op., at 12) (a word capable of many meanings is refined by 
its  neighbors,  which  often  “  ‘avoid[s]  the  giving  of  unin-
tended breadth to the Acts of Congress’ ”).  Unsurprisingly, 
then, when this Court upheld the 1885 Act against a consti-
tutional  challenge,  it  explained  that  Congress  “has  the 
power to punish any who assist” in introducing noncitizens 
into  the  country—without  suggesting  that  the  term  “en-
couraging”  altered  the  scope  of  the  prohibition.    Lees  v. 
United States, 150 U. S. 476, 480 (1893) (emphasis added). 
  In the ensuing decades, Congress both added to and sub-
tracted from the “encouraging” prohibition in the 1885 Act.  
Throughout, it continued to place “encouraging” alongside 
“assisting” and “soliciting.”  See Act of Mar. 3, 1903, §5, 32 
Stat.  1214–1215;  Act  of  Feb.  20,  1907,  §5,  34  Stat.  900.  
Then,  in  1917,  Congress  added  “induce”  to  the  string  of 
verbs.  Act of Feb. 5, 1917, §5, 39 Stat. 879 (1917 Act) (mak-