Court Opinion

ID: 9431412
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:14.893388+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:28.374944
License: Public Domain

Justice Scalia,
concurring in part.
I join the opinion of the Court except Part II-A, which is largely devoted to establishing, through the floor debate in the House, (1) that prejudice to the defendant is one of the factors that the phrase “among others” in § 3162(a)(2) refers to, and (2) that that factor is not necessarily determinative. Both these points seem to me so utterly clear from the text of the legislation that there is no justification for resort to the legislative history. Assume that there was nothing in the legislative history except statements that, unless the defendant had been harmed by the delay, dismissal with prejudice could not be granted. Would we permit that to govern, even though the text of the provision does not consider that factor dominant enough to be mentioned specifically, but just includes it within the phrase “among othe[r] [factors],” or perhaps within the phrase “facts and circumstances of the casé which led to the dismissal”? Or assume the opposite, that *345there was nothing in the legislative history except statements that harm to the defendant could not be considered at all. Would we permit that to govern, even though impairment of the accused’s defense is so obviously one of the “other factors” highly relevant to whether the Government should be permitted to reinstitute the prosecution?
I think the answer to both these questions is obviously no. The text is so unambiguous on these points that it must be assumed that what the Members of the House and the Senators thought they were voting for, and what the President thought he was approving when he signed the bill, was what the text plainly said, rather than what a few Representatives, or even a Committee Report, said it said. Where we are not prepared to be governed by what the legislative history says — to take, as it were, the bad with the good — we should not look to the legislative history at all. This text is eminently clear, and we should leave it at that.
It should not be thought that, simply because adverting to the legislative history produces the same result we would reach anyway, no harm is done. By perpetuating the view that legislative history can alter the meaning of even a clear statutory provision, we produce a legal culture in which the following statement could be made — taken from a portion of the floor debate alluded to in the Court’s opinion:
“Mr. DENNIS_
“I have an amendment here in my hand which could be offered, but if we can make up some legislative history which would do the same thing, I am willing to do it.” 120 Cong. Rec. 41795 (1974).
We should not make the equivalency between making legislative history and making an amendment so plausible. It should not be possible, or at least should not be easy, to be sure of obtaining a particular result in this Court without making that result apparent on the face of the bill which both Houses consider and vote upon, which the President ap*346proves, and which, if it becomes law, the people must obey. I think we have an obligation to conduct our exegesis in a fashion which fosters that democratic process.