Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-543_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 39.0

8 

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

B 
  While initially acknowledging that the recognition clause 
applies to ANCs, the Court interprets its terms differently.  
Rather than understanding it as denoting a government-to-
government relationship, the Court says, we should look to 
its “plain meaning.”  Ante, at 7.  But even if we could some-
how  set  aside  everything  we  know  about  how  the  term  is 
used in Indian law and the CARES Act itself, it’s far from 
clear  what  “plain  meaning”  the  Court  alludes  to  or  how 
ANCs might fall within it. 
  First,  consider  the  Federally  Recognized  Indian  Tribe 
List Act of 1994 (List Act).  The List Act instructs the Sec-
retary of the Interior to keep a list of all federally recognized 
Indian tribes.  It does so using language materially identi-
cal to that found in ISDA’s recognition clause:  “The Secre-
tary shall publish in the Federal Register a list of all Indian 
tribes which the Secretary recognizes to be eligible for the 
special  programs  and  services  provided  by  the  United 
States  to  Indians  because  of  their  status  as  Indians.”    25 
U. S. C. §5131(a).  No one before us thinks the Secretary of 
the  Interior  should  list  the  ANCs  as  federally  recognized 
tribes.  And given that, it is unclear how ANCs might count 
as federally recognized tribes under ISDA.  To be sure, the 
List Act came after ISDA.  But the Court never attempts to 
explain how the plain meaning of nearly identical language 
in  remarkably  similar  legal  contexts  might  nevertheless 
differ. 
  Second, on any account, ISDA requires an Indian tribe or 
group to be “recognized.”  But what work does this term do 
on  the  Court’s  interpretation?    Without  explanation,  the 
Court  asserts  that  ANCs  are  “ ‘recognized  as  eligible’  for 
ANCSA’s benefits” because they are “ ‘established pursuant 
to’  ANCSA.”    Ante,  at  8.    But  on  this  understanding,  any 
group eligible for benefits would seem, on that basis alone, 
to be “recognized” as eligible for those benefits.  The Court’s