Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-543_3e04.pdf
Page Number: 26.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

23 

Opinion of the Court 

conceivably  permit  it  to  recognize  a  government-to-
government relationship between an ANC and the United
States.  Perhaps, but possibility is not the same as plausi-
bility, and both are proper concerns of statutory interpreta-
tion.  Consider again the example of a restaurant advertis-
ing “50% off any meat, vegetable, or seafood dish, including 
ceviche,  which  is  cooked.”    On  respondents’  logic,  because
the restaurant technically could cook its ceviche, the only 
way to read the advertisement is that ceviche is full price 
unless the restaurant takes an unexpected culinary step.

That is wrong.  The best reading of the advertisement is 
that ceviche is 50% off even if it is not cooked, just as the 
best reading of ISDA is that ANCs are Indian tribes even if 
they are not federally recognized.  Any grammatical awk-
wardness involved in the recognized-as-eligible clause skip-
ping over the Alaska clause pales in comparison to the in-
congruity  of  forever  excluding  all  ANCs  from  an  “Indian 
tribe”  definition  whose  most  prominent  feature  is  that  it
specifically includes them. 

D 

Respondents make a few final arguments to persuade the 
Court that ANCs are not Indian tribes under ISDA.  None 
succeeds. 

Respondents argue first that the ANCs misrepresent how 
meaningful a role they play under ISDA because the actual
number of ISDA contracts held by ANCs is negligible.  The 
Court does not have the record before it to determine the 
exact number and nature of ISDA contracts held by ANCs
or  their  designees,  either  historically  or  currently.    The 
point  is  largely  irrelevant,  however.    No  one  would  argue
that a federally recognized tribe was not an Indian tribe un-
der ISDA just because it had never entered into an ISDA 
contract.    The  same  is  true  for  ANCs.    To  the  extent  re-
spondents argue that ruling for them would be of little prac-
tical consequence given the small number of ISDA contracts