Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-783_k53l.pdf
Page Number: 14.0

10 

VAN BUREN v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

to obtain information, the dissent continues, therefore de-
mands a “circumstance dependent” analysis of whether ac-
cess was proper.  Post, at 3.  This reading, like the Govern-
ment’s,  would  extend 
to  any 
circumstance-based limit appearing anywhere. 

the  statute’s  reach 

The dissent’s approach to the word “entitled” fares fine in 
the abstract but poorly in context.  The statute does not re-
fer  to  “information  . . . that  the  accesser  is  not  entitled  to 
obtain.”  It refers to “information . . . that the accesser is not 
entitled  so  to  obtain.”    18  U. S. C.  §1030(e)(6)  (emphasis 
added).  The word “entitled,” then, does not stand alone, in-
viting the reader to consider the full scope of the accesser’s
entitlement to information.  The modifying phrase “so to ob-
tain” directs the reader to consider a specific limitation on 
the accesser’s entitlement: his entitlement to obtain the in-
formation “in the manner previously stated.”  Supra, at 7. 
And as already explained, the manner previously stated is
using a computer one is authorized to access.  Thus, while 
giving lipservice to Van Buren’s reading of “so,” the dissent, 
like the Government, declines to give “so” any limiting func-
tion.5 

The dissent cannot have it both ways.  The consequence
of  accepting  Van  Buren’s  reading  of  “so”  is  the  narrowed
scope of “entitled.”  In fact, the dissent’s examples implicitly
concede as much: They all omit the word “so,” thereby giv-
ing “entitled” its full sweep.  See post, at 3–4.  An approach
that must rewrite the statute to work is even less persua-
sive than the Government’s. 

—————— 

5 For the same reason, the dissent is incorrect when it contends that 
our  interpretation  reads  the  additional  words  “under  any  possible  cir-
cumstance” into the statute.  Post, at 3 (emphasis deleted).  Our reading
instead interprets the phrase “so to obtain” to incorporate the single “cir-
cumstance” of permissible information access identified by the statute:
obtaining the information by using one’s computer.