Court Opinion

ID: 9800553
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 08:23:37.107051+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:44:09.035381
License: Public Domain

RANDOLPH, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring:
A Supreme Court tax decision, and a tax decision of this court, flatly reject the position the government takes in this case.
As Judge Griffith’s majority opinion— which I fully join — demonstrates, an Exchange established by the federal government cannot possibly be “an Exchange established by the State.” To hold otherwise would be to engage in distortion, not interpretation. Only further legislation could accomplish the expansion the government seeks.
In the meantime, Justice Brandéis’ opinion for the Supreme Court in Iselin v. United States is controlling: “What the government asks is not a construction of a statute, but, in effect, an enlargement of it by the court, so that what was omitted, presumably by inadvertence, may be included within its scope. To supply omissions transcends the judicial function.” 270 U.S. 245, 251, 46 S.Ct. 248, 70 L.Ed. 566 (1926). We held the same in National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. United States, 431 F.3d 374, 378 (D.C.Cir.2005), citing not only Iselin but also Lamie v. United States Trustee, 540 U.S. 526, 538, 124 S.Ct. 1023, 157 L.Ed.2d 1024 (2004), which reaffirmed Iselin’s “longstanding” interpretative principle.