Court Opinion

ID: 9497477
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:52:14.329039+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:13.056191
License: Public Domain

GREGORY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The majority’s decision to read an implied discretionary function exception into the SIAA is based solely on separation of powers concerns. In reaching its decision, however, the majority circumvents traditional principles of statutory construction, and further fails to explain how the separation of powers doctrine is implicated by the plain language of the statute. I agree with the reasoning proffered in Parts I, II. A and B of Judge Luttig’s dissenting opinion. For those and the other reasons that follow, I must dissent.
As the majority concedes, “[t]he first step [of statutory construction] is to determine whether the language at issue has a plain and unambiguous meaning with regard to the particular dispute in the case. The inquiry ceases if the statutory language is unambiguous and the statutory scheme is coherent and consistent.” Ante at 339 (quoting Barnhart v. Sigmon Coal Co., 534 U.S. 438, 450, 122 S.Ct. 941, 151 L.Ed.2d 908 (2002) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)). The language of the SIAA is unambiguous. Indeed, as the majority states, “the plain language of the SIAA seems to reflect a Congressional intent that discretionary acts should not be excluded from the waiver of sovereign immunity.” Ante at 339. Thus, the majority’s inquiry should have ceased upon reading the text of the statute. Nevertheless, after conceding that the statutory language is unambiguous, the majority pro-' ceeds to take its inquiry outside the text of the SIAA, and delves into the history of the FTCA in support of its decision to read an implied discretionary function exception into the SIAA. However, the fact that the FTCA, the SIAA’s predecessor, contains an express discretionary function exception weakens the majority’s position, because if Congress wished to include such a provision in the text of the SIAA, it certainly could have looked to the FTCA for *383guidance. Yet, Congress expressly chose not to include the exception in the SIAA, and the majority’s attempts to expand an already unambiguous statute are misplaced.
More importantly, the majority fails to demonstrate an independent separation of powers violation that is caused by the lack of a discretionary function exception in the SIAA. In I.N.S. v. Chadha, the Supreme Court outlined two ways in which the separation of powers doctrine may be violated: “One branch may interfere impermissibly with the other’s performance of its constitutionally assigned function. Alternatively, the doctrine may be violated when one branch assumes a function that more properly is entrusted to another.” 462 U.S. 919, 962-63, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 77 L.Ed.2d 317 (1983) (internal citations omitted). In the instant case, the majority fails to demonstrate how enforcing the SIAA, as written, would result in either of these identified separation of powers violations. Instead, the majority trumpets the fact that ten of our sister circuits, ante at 338-39, have included an implied discretionary function exception in the text of the SIAA, and decides to follow suit. However, those courts had no more authority to read into the SIAA a discretionary function exception than we do now. Additionally, the majority provides examples of several cases where courts have enforced the discretionary function exception created by the FTCA, and thereby opines that “it becomes apparent that the absence of such an exception in the SIAA is problematic, to say the least.” Ante at 342. The majority ultimately concludes, without support, that “[a]s these examples illustrate, if the SIAA does not include a discretionary function exception, the executive branch’s ability to ‘faithfully execute! ]’ the law, would be substantially impaired.” Ante at 342 (internal citations omitted). Essentially, the majority holds that because the FTCA has a discretionary function exception, Congress must have intended the SIAA, a similar statute, to have an implied discretionary function exception as well. The majority has embarked upon a slippery slope of statutory interpretation with no visible end. Surely, the court cannot suggest, in good faith, that discretionary function exceptions, or any omitted language, be read into mirror-image statutes when one statute contains the exception and the other does not. Nevertheless, the majority reaches this conclusion; one that is best left to the legislature, and not the judiciary, lest we “assume! ] a function that more properly is entrusted to another.” Chadha, 462 U.S. at 963, 103 S.Ct. 2764. Because the text of the SIAA is plain and unambiguous and clearly does not contain a discretionary function exception, I conclude that the reasoning in Lane is sound. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.