Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Page Number: 38

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

7 

BARRETT, J., concurring 

cause in the context of the criminal code, a reasonable ob-
server would “expect the term ‘drew blood’ to describe a vi-
olent act,” Manning 2461.  Common sense similarly bears
on  judgments  like  whether  a  floating  home  is  a  “vessel,” 
Lozman  v.  Riviera  Beach,  568  U. S.  115,  120–121  (2013), 
whether  tomatoes  are  “vegetables,”  Nix  v.  Hedden,  149 
U. S. 304, 306–307 (1893), and whether a skin irritant is a 
“chemical weapon,” Bond, 572 U. S., at 860–862. 

Why  is  any  of  this  relevant  to  the  major  questions  doc-
trine?  Because context is also relevant to interpreting the 
scope of a delegation.  Think about agency law, which is all 
about delegations.  When an agent acts on behalf of a prin-
cipal, she “has actual authority to take action designated or
implied in the principal’s manifestations to the agent . . . as 
the agent reasonably understands [those] manifestations.” 
Restatement (Third) of Agency §2.02(1) (2005).  Whether an 
agent’s understanding is reasonable depends on “[t]he con-
text  in  which  the  principal  and  agent  interact,”  including
their “[p]rior dealings,” industry “customs and usages,” and
“the nature of the principal’s business or the principal’s per-
sonal situation.”  Id., §2.02, Comment e (emphasis added). 
With that in mind, imagine that a grocer instructs a clerk 
to “go to the orchard and buy apples for the store.”  Though
this  grant  of  apple-purchasing  authority  sounds  unquali-
fied, a reasonable clerk would know that there are limits. 
For  example,  if  the  grocer  usually  keeps  200  apples  on
hand,  the  clerk  does  not  have  actual  authority  to  buy
1,000—the  grocer  would  have  spoken  more  directly  if  she 
meant  to  authorize  such  an  out-of-the-ordinary  purchase.
A clerk who disregards context and stretches the words to 
their fullest will not have a job for long. 

This  is  consistent  with  how  we  communicate  conversa-
tionally.  Consider a parent who hires a babysitter to watch
her young children over the weekend.  As she walks out the 
door, the parent hands the babysitter her credit card and 
says:  “Make  sure  the  kids  have  fun.”  Emboldened,  the