Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/17-459_1o13.pdf
Page Number: 36.0

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

9 

ALITO, J., dissenting
 

III
 
Based  on  the  relevant  text,  context,  statutory  history,
and statutory  purpose, the  Government makes a convinc-
ing case that the stop-time rule can be triggered even by a 
notice to appear that omits the date and time of a removal 
proceeding.  But the Court holds instead that in order “to 
trigger  the  stop-time  rule,  the  Government  must  serve  a 
notice  to  appear  that,  at  the  very  least,  ‘specif[ies]’  the
‘time  and  place’  of  the  removal  proceedings.”    Ante,  at  9. 
According to the Court, that conclusion is compelled by the
statutory text, the statutory context, and “common sense.” 
Ante,  at  12.    While  the  Court’s  interpretation  may  be
reasonable, the Court goes much too far in saying that it is
the only reasonable construction. 

A 
Start  with  the  text.    As  noted,  the  stop-time  rule  pro-
vides that “any period of . . . continuous physical presence
in the United States shall be deemed to end . . . when the 
alien  is  served  a  notice  to  appear  under  section  1229(a).” 
§1229b(d)(1).  The Court does not dispute that it is entirely
consistent  with  standard  English  usage  to  read  this
language as the Government and I do.  See ante, at 15.  It 
therefore  follows  that  the  stop-time  rule  itself  does  not 
foreclose the Government’s interpretation. 

That  leaves  only  §1229(a)(1),  which  specifies  the  infor-
mation that a notice to appear must contain.  The Court’s 
treatment  of  this  provision  contradicts  itself.  On  the  one 
hand, the Court insists that this provision is “definitional” 
and  that  it  sets  out  the  essential  characteristics  without 
which a notice is not a notice to appear.  Ante, at 13.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  the  Court  states  that  it  “leaves  for 
another  day  whether  a  putative  notice  to  appear  that
omits  any  of  the  other  categories  of  information  enumer- 
ated in §1229(a)(1) triggers the stop-time rule.”  Ante, at 8, 
n. 5.  The Court cannot have it both ways.  If §1229(a)(1) is