Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-511_p86b.pdf
Page Number: 8

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2021) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

“(A)  to  store  or  produce  telephone  numbers  to  be
called,  using  a  random  or  sequential  number  genera-
tor; and 

“(B) to dial such numbers.” 

Facebook argues the clause “using a random or sequential 
number  generator”  modifies  both  verbs  that  precede  it
(“store” and “produce”), while Duguid contends it modifies
only  the  closest  one  (“produce”).  We  conclude  that  the 
clause  modifies  both,  specifying  how  the  equipment  must
either  “store”  or  “produce”  telephone  numbers.    Because 
Facebook’s notification system neither stores nor produces
numbers “using a random or sequential number generator,” 
it is not an autodialer. 

A 
We begin with the text.  Congress defined an autodialer 
in  terms  of  what  it  must  do  (“store  or  produce  telephone
numbers to be called”) and how it must do it (“using a ran-
dom or sequential number generator”).  The definition uses 
a familiar structure: a list of verbs followed by a modifying 
clause.  Under  conventional  rules  of  grammar,  “[w]hen 
there  is  a  straightforward,  parallel  construction  that  in-
volves all nouns or verbs in a series,” a modifier at the end 
of the list “normally applies to the entire series.”  A. Scalia 
&  B.  Garner,  Reading  Law:  The  Interpretation  of  Legal 
Texts  147  (2012)  (Scalia  &  Garner)  (quotation  modified).
The Court often applies this interpretative rule, usually re-
ferred  to  as  the  “series-qualifier  canon.”  See  Paroline  v. 
United States, 572 U. S. 434, 447 (2014) (citing Porto Rico 
Railway,  Light  &  Power  Co.  v.  Mor,  253  U. S.  345,  348 
(1920)); see also United States v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 339– 
340 (1971).  This canon generally reflects the most natural
reading of a sentence.  Imagine if a teacher announced that 
“students must not complete or check any homework to be
turned  in  for  a  grade,  using  online  homework-help  web-
sites.”  It would be strange to read that rule as prohibiting