Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 518.0

524US2

Unit: $U93

[09-11-00 13:25:42] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 417 (1998)

473

Breyer, J., dissenting

“ ‘When this Court is asked to invalidate a statutory pro-
vision that has been approved by both Houses of the
Congress and signed by the President, particularly an
Act of Congress that confronts a deeply vexing national
problem, it should only do so for the most compelling
constitutional reasons.’ ” Ante, at 447, n. 42 (quoting
Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U. S. 714, 736 (1986) (Stevens,
J., concurring in judgment)).

Cf. Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., supra, at 635 (Jackson,
J., concurring) (“Presidential powers are not ﬁxed but ﬂuc-
tuate, depending on their disjunction or conjunction with
those of Congress . . . [and when] the President acts pursuant
to an express or implied authorization of Congress, his au-
thority is at its maximum”).

These three background circumstances mean that, when
one measures the literal words of the Act against the Consti-
tution’s literal commands, the fact that the Act may closely
resemble a different, literally unconstitutional, arrangement
is beside the point. To drive exactly 65 miles per hour on
an interstate highway closely resembles an act that violates
the speed limit. But it does not violate that limit, for small
differences matter when the question is one of literal viola-
tion of law. No more does this Act literally violate the Con-
stitution’s words. See Part III, infra.

The background circumstances also mean that we are to
interpret nonliteral separation-of-powers principles in light
of the need for “workable government.” Youngstown Sheet
If we
and Tube Co., supra, at 635 (Jackson, J., concurring).
apply those principles in light of that objective, as this Court
has applied them in the past, the Act is constitutional. See
Part IV, infra.

III

The Court believes that the Act violates the literal text
of the Constitution. A simple syllogism captures its basic
reasoning: