Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/12-71_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 10.0

Cite as:  570 U. S. ____ (2013) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

(“To receive (a thing offered to or thrust upon one) with a 
consenting  mind”;  “To  receive  with  favor;  to  approve”).
And we take it as self-evident that the “elastic” verb “use,” 
read in isolation, is broad enough to encompass Arizona’s
preferred construction.  Smith v.  United States, 508  U. S. 
223,  241  (1993)  (SCALIA,  J.,  dissenting).  In  common  par-
lance,  one  might  say  that  a  restaurant  accepts  and  uses
credit  cards  even  though  it  requires  customers  to  show 
matching  identification  when  making  a  purchase.    See 
also Brief for State Petitioners 40 (“An airline may adver-
tise  that  it  ‘accepts  and  uses’  e-tickets  . . .  ,  yet  may  still 
require  photo  identification  before  one  could  board  the 
airplane”).

“Words that can have more than one meaning are given
content,  however,  by  their  surroundings.”    Whitman  v. 
American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U. S. 457, 466 (2001); 
see also Smith, supra, at 241 (SCALIA, J., dissenting).  And 
reading  “accept”  merely  to  denote  willing  receipt  seems
out of place in the context of an official mandate to accept
and use something for a given purpose.  The implication of 
such a mandate is that its object is to be accepted as suffi-
cient for the requirement it is meant to satisfy.  For exam-
ple,  a  government  diktat  that  “civil  servants  shall  accept 
government IOUs for payment of salaries” does not invite 
the response, “sure, we’ll accept IOUs—if you pay us a ten
percent  down  payment  in  cash.”   Many  federal  statutes
contain  similarly  phrased  commands,  and  they  contem-
plate more than mere willing receipt.  See, e.g., 5 U. S. C. 
§8332(b),  (m)(3)  (“The  Office  [of  Personnel  Management] 
shall  accept  the  certification  of ”  various  officials  concern-
ing  creditable  service  toward  civilian-employee  retire-
ment); 12 U. S. C. A. §2605(l)(2) (Supp. 2013) (“A servicer 
of a federally related mortgage shall accept any reasonable 
form  of  written  confirmation  from  a  borrower  of  existing
insurance  coverage”);  16  U. S. C.  §1536(p)  (Endangered 
Species Committee “shall accept the determinations of the