Opinion ID: 3051283
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Patriot Reauthorization Act

Text: [6] In 2006, Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-177, 120 Stat. 192 (2006) (“Patriot Reauthorization Act” or “Act”). Section 310 of the Act amended 18 U.S.C. § 545 by increasing the maximum sentence under § 545 from five to twenty years, but otherwise left § 545 unchanged. Section 311(a) of the Act added an entirely new provision, now codified at 18 U.S.C. § 554. Unlike the newly amended § 545, which still prohibits only violations of “law,” the newly 2 The relevant text of the 1922 and 1930 statutes reads as follows: If any person fraudulently or knowingly imports or brings into the United States, or assists in so doing, any merchandise[,] contrary to law, or receives, conceals, buys, sells, or in any manner facilitates the transportation, concealment, or sale of such merchandise after importation, knowing the same to have been imported or brought into the United States contrary to law, such merchandise shall be forfeited and the offender shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $5,000 nor less than $50, or be imprisoned for any time not exceeding two years, or both. Tariff Act of 1922, ch. 356, § 593(b), 42 Stat. 858, 982; Tariff Act of 1930, ch. 497, § 593(b), 46 Stat. 590, 751 (emphases added; brackets indicate comma present only in the 1922 version). 1954 UNITED STATES v. ALGHAZOULI enacted § 554 prohibits the violation of any “law or regulation,” while otherwise tracking the language of § 545.3 [7] The amendment of § 545 by Section 310 and the simultaneous enactment of § 554 in Section 311 of the Patriot Reauthorization Act indicate that Congress intended “law,” as used in § 545, to include a regulation only if a statute specifies that the violation of that regulation is a crime. Sections 310 and 311 are closely related. Both were enacted as part of the Patriot Reauthorization Act and both are codified in Chapter 27 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code (“Customs”). Both regulate movement across the borders of the United States. Section 545 addresses “Smuggling goods into the United States,” and § 554 addresses “Smuggling goods from the United States.” Finally, § 554(b) crossreferences § 545, specifying that “the term ‘United States’ has the meaning given that term in section 545.” The close relationship between § 545 and § 554 suggests that the term “law” in each has the same meaning. The statute presents “a classic case for application of the normal rule of statutory construction that identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning.” Sullivan v. Stroop, 496 U.S. 478, 484 (1990) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). There is no indication that 3 Section 554(a) provides that: Whoever fraudulently or knowingly exports or sends from the United States, or attempts to export or send from the United States, any merchandise, article, or object contrary to any law or regulation of the United States, or receives, conceals, buys, sells, or in any manner facilitates the transportation, concealment, or sale of such merchandise, article or object, prior to exportation, knowing the same to be intended for exportation contrary to any law or regulation of the United States, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. (Emphases added.) UNITED STATES v. ALGHAZOULI 1955 these terms “are found in such dissimilar connections as to warrant the conclusion that they were employed in the different parts of the act with different intent.” Helvering v. Stockholms Enskilda Bank, 293 U.S. 84, 87 (1934). Moreover, § 554 uses the phrase “law or regulation” twice. The conjunction “or” indicates that “law” as used in § 554 does not include all regulations. If it did, the word “regulation” in § 554 would be superfluous. See, e.g., Montclair v. Ramsdell, 107 U.S. 147, 152 (1883) (“It is the duty of the court to give effect, if possible, to every clause and word of a statute, avoiding, if it may be, any construction which implies that the legislature was ignorant of the meaning of the language it employed.”). The logical conclusion, based on the proximity of § 545 and § 554, is that the term “law” in § 545 is not the equivalent of the broader “law or regulation” phrase in § 554. See also, e.g., Ariz. Elec. Power Co-op. v. United States, 816 F.2d 1366, 1375 (9th Cir. 1987) (“When Congress includes a specific term in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it should not be implied where it is excluded.”); 2A Sutherland, Statutory Construction § 46.6 (6th ed. 2006) (“[W]hen the legislature uses certain language in one part of the statute and different language in another, the court assumes different meanings were intended.”).