Court Opinion

ID: 9431587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:39.031071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:29.227562
License: Public Domain

Justice Kennedy,
with whom Justice O’Connor joins, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
It is quite unnecessary for the resolution of this case to explore or discuss the Senate proceedings that led to ratification of the 1942 Convention Respecting Double Taxation; for, as the Court unanimously agrees, the text of the Treaty is quite sufficient to decide the issue before us. The intent of the Treaty’s signatories is manifest from the language of the document itself. I agree with Justice Scalia that we should not reach, either in a direct or an implicit way, the question whether Senate debates on ratification are authoritative or even helpful in determining what the signatories to a treaty intended. That determination should be reserved until we confront a case where the language of the treaty itself does not yield a clear answer to the question before us. For these reasons, I join the judgment of the Court and all but Part II-C of the Court’s opinion.