Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 766

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Unit: $U55

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 667 (2000)

691

Thomas, J., dissenting

meaning separate and apart from the words “under a Federal
I am
program involving a . . . form of federal assistance.”
doubtful that the Court’s interpretation gives any meaning
at all to the word “beneﬁts” in § 666(b) because, under the
Court’s rationale, any organization that receives $10,000
under a federal program involving federal assistance re-
ceives “beneﬁts” in such an amount.

This expansive construction of § 666(b) is, at the very least,
inconsistent with the rule of lenity—which the Court does
not discuss. This principle requires that, to the extent that
there is any ambiguity in the term “beneﬁts,” we should re-
solve that ambiguity in favor of the defendant. See United
States v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 347 (1971) (“In various ways
over the years, we have stated that when choice has to be
made between two readings of what conduct Congress has
made a crime, it is appropriate, before we choose the harsher
alternative, to require that Congress should have spoken in
language that is clear and deﬁnite” (internal quotation
marks omitted)).

C

I doubt that there is any federal assistance program that
does not provide “beneﬁts” to organizations under the
Court’s expansive rationale, but will illustrate my point with
just one example employed by two lower courts. See
United States v. Wyncoop, 11 F. 3d 119, 123 (CA9 1993);
United States v. LaHue, 998 F. Supp. 1182, 1187 (Kan. 1998),
aff ’d, 170 F. 3d 1026 (CA10 1999). Many grocery stores ac-
cept more than $10,000 per annum in food stamps distributed
to individual beneﬁciaries as part of the Federal Food Stamp
and Food Distribution Program. Like Medicare providers,
stores participating in the Food Stamp Program are required
to satisfy a comprehensive series of statutory and regulatory
requirements. See 7 CFR pt. 278 (1999). For example,
stores are qualiﬁed to participate only if they sell an ade-
quate percentage of staple foods such as meat, cereal, and
§ 278.1(b)(1). Stores must document an
dairy products.