Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-511_p86b.pdf
Page Number: 18

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2021) 

3 

ALITO, J., concurring
ALITO, J., concurring in judgment 

But  it  is  very  easy  to  think  of  sentences  that  clearly  go 
against the canon: 

“At the Super Bowl party, she ate, drank, and cheered 
raucously.”
“On Saturday, he relaxes and exercises vigorously.” 
“When his owner comes home, the dog wags his tail and 
barks loudly.”
“It  is  illegal  to  hunt  rhinos  and  giraffes  with  necks
longer than three feet.”
“She likes to swim and run wearing track spikes.” 

In support of its treatment of the series-qualifier canon,
the  Court  offers  this  example  of  a  sentence  in  which  the
natural  reading  corresponds  with  the  interpretation  sug-
gested by the canon: “[S]tudents must not complete or check 
any  homework  to  be  turned  in  for  a  grade,  using  online 
homework-help websites.”  Ante, at 5.  I certainly agree that
the adverbial phrase in this sentence (“using online home-
work-help  websites”)  modifies  both  of  the  verbs  it  follows 
(“complete” and “check”) and not just the latter.  But that 
understanding has little to do with syntax and everything
to do with our common understanding that teachers do not
want  to  prohibit  students  from  doing  homework.    We  can 
see this point clearly if we retain the same syntax but re-
place the verb “complete” with any number of other verbs
that describe something a teacher is not likely to want stu-
dents to do, say, “ignore,” “overlook,” “discard,” “lose,” “ne-
glect,”  “forget,”  “destroy,”  “throw  away,”  or  “incinerate” 
their homework.  The concept of “using online homework-
help websites” to do any of those things would be nonsensi-
cal, and no reader would interpret the sentence to have that 
meaning—even  though  that  is  what  the  series-qualifier 
canon suggests.

The strength and validity of an interpretive canon is an 
empirical question, and perhaps someday it will be possible