Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-108_8n5a.pdf
Page Number: 29.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

7 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

term ‘reward.’ ”  Ante, at 15.  However, none of the major-
ity’s examples use the term “reward” in a way that is rele-
vantly similar to §666.  For one thing, the majority’s exam-
ples  do  not  use  the  phrase  “influenced  or  rewarded”  to 
delineate  between  bribes  and  gratuities,  while  covering 
both,  as  §666  does.    In  addition,  each  of  the  statutes  the 
majority points to explicitly links the forbidden “reward” to 
an agreement to take some specific action; in other words,
the majority’s examples specify, by their plain text, a quid 
pro  quo.  For  example,  18  U. S. C.  §600  imposes  federal
criminal  penalties  on  anyone  who  “promises,”  inter  alia, 
jobs or benefits “provided for or made possible in whole or
in part by any Act of Congress” to another person “as con-
sideration,  favor,  or  reward  for”  certain  political  activity.
That statute identifies both a forbidden quid (a future job)
and quo (political activity).1 

In  contrast  with  those  statutes,  when  §666  uses  “re-
warded,”  it  never  connects  that  term  to  some  upfront  ex-
change.  What the majority’s examples actually show, then,
is  that  when  Congress  wants  to  use  the  term  “reward”  to
encompass only bribes, it knows just how to do so.  See Hen-
son  v.  Santander  Consumer  USA  Inc.,  582  U. S.  79,  86 
(2017) (“[W]e presume differences in language like this con-
vey differences in meaning”). 

B 
In an attempt to shore up its unnatural reading of §666,
the  majority  turns  to  statutory  and  legislative  history. 
Ante,  at  5,  8–9.  Where  appropriate,  I,  too,  find  statutory 
and legislative history to be useful tools that this Court can 
and  should  consult.  See,  e.g.,  Delaware  v.  Pennsylvania, 

—————— 

1 See  also  33  U. S. C. §447  (imposing  penalties  on  “[e]very  person 
who . . . gives any sum of money or other bribe, present, or reward . . . to 
any . . . employee of the office of any supervisor of a harbor with intent
to influence such . . . employee to permit or overlook any violation of the
provisions of this subchapter”).