Court Opinion

ID: 9426430
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:53.472848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:59.690006
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
In my judgment a brief reference to the history, purpose, and language of these two special venue statutes will provide a better guide to their meaning than the exposition of the doctrine of implied repeal found in the treatise on statutory construction written by Sedgwick in 1874. Indeed, if Sedgwick were to be our guide, I would heed this advice: “When acts can be harmonized by a fair and liberal construction it must be done.” 1
*159It is worth repeating that both of these statutes are special venue statutes. Neither party relies on the general venue provision in 28 U. S. C. § 1391. One relies on a special statute for one kind of litigant — national banks; the other relies on a special statute for one kind of litigation — cases arising under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The precise issue before us involves only a tiny fraction of the cases in either special category: Most litigation against national banks does not arise under the Securities Exchange Act; and most litigation arising under the Securities Exchange Act does not involve national banks. Thus, with equal logic we might describe either statute as creating an exception from the somewhat more general provisions of the other.
The rule that the legislature presumably intended to give effect to the more specific statute could therefore be applied to support the petitioner, as well as the respondent bank, in this case.2 Similarly, without pausing to consider the reason why each statute was enacted, we might simply apply the rule that the more recent of two *160conflicting statutes shall prevail,3 rather than the rule that the special statute takes precedence over the general. But such abstract reasoning is less instructive than a consideration of the source and the need for the alleged conflict. Of special importance is an evaluation of the intent of Congress when it enacted these statutes.
The source of the special venue statute for national banks is the Act to Provide a National Currency enacted in 18634 and amended in 1864.5 When these statutes were enacted, Congress apparently assumed that the *161newly authorized national banks would not be subject to suit in state courts unless Congress gave its express consent.6 The fact that the statute was phrased in permissive language suggests that Congress' primary purpose was to give such consent. The mandatory construction given to that language a century later when the Court decided Mercantile Nat. Bank v. Langdeau, 371 U. S. 555, is consistent with that purpose because it is unlikely that the Civil War Congress intended to authorize the several States to subject national banks to the potential harassment of defending litigation in places other than the county or city where the bank was located.7 This reason for placing a mandatory limiting construction on the authorization for suit in the state courts is not applicable to the separately enacted federal venue provision; for in any event the federal courts could only entertain such litigation against national banks as Congress might authorize.
In 1934 when Congress enacted the Securities Exchange Act, there was no reason for it to assume that the language in the special jurisdictional and venue provisions of that statute would not apply to national banks. Langdeau would not be decided until almost 30 years later, the language in the venue provision of the Civil War banking legislation was permissive, and there was no recognized policy reason supporting an exceptional venue privilege for national banks in federal litigation. There was no longer any doubt about the su-ability of national banks in either state or federal courts. Moreover, what once might have been regarded as the significant burden of requiring a fledgling bank to haul its records from one county to another within *162the State, would hardly justify treating banks differently from other litigants in the 20th century.
On the other hand, the special venue .section included in the Securities Acts was specifically designed to implement an important legislative objective. Indeed, in construing the comparable provision in the 1933 statute, the Court held that its benefits are so crucial to the legislative purpose that they cannot be waived.8 In contrast, it is well settled that a national bank’s special venue privilege is waivable.9 Manifestly, there is a *163difference between the importance of the policies underlying the two statutes.
But there is no necessary conflict. Since the two Acts can be harmonized by a fair and liberal construction, if we heed Sedgwick’s counsel, that “must be done.” As already noted, the actual wording of the earlier statute, which used the words “may be had” provides no conflict with a literal reading of the later Act. The conflict is created solely by this Court’s interpretation of those words as, in effect, meaning that the trial of a case against a national bank “must be had” in the place specified by Congress rather than the place specified by a state legislature. If we so read the statute, we need only conclude that any later enacted special venue statute which, by its own terms, applies to national banks should be read to mean what it says. Preoccupation with the ancient doctrine of implied repeal should not foreclose this simple construction of the plain language of the 1934 Act.10
*164The rule that repeals by implication are not favored, like all other canons of statutory construction, is merely one of the guidelines to observe in the search for a construction which will best reflect the real intent of the legislature. When we are dealing with a well-established and clearly defined old rule, it is usually reasonable to suppose that the legislative intent to change such a rule would be unambiguously expressed. Or if we are dealing with an old rule that is an established and important part of our national policy, we must be sure that it is not changed simply by inadvertent use of broad statutory language. Thus, if Congress intended to modify the long-settled practice of preferential hiring of Indians on Indian reservations,11 or to limit the coverage of a statute as important as the Sherman Act,12 a court would require an unambiguous expression of intent to make such a change; without such an expression it is reasonable to believe that inadvertence, rather than an intent to repeal, is the actual explanation for the broad language that arguably changes the old rule.13 But if neither the *165existence of, nor the reason for, the old rule is clear at the time of the later enactment, there is no special reason for questioning the legislative intent to have the later statute mean exactly what it says. Specifically, in this case, since it is clear that Congress intended national banks to be covered by some sections of the Securities Exchange Act, but not others,14 and since the purpose of authorizing a broader venue in this type of litigation applies with equal force to national banks and other defendants, the canon of construction strikes me as an unreliable guide for ascertaining the true intent of Congress.
Congress may well have simply overlooked the special venue provision in the Civil War statute, particularly since Langdeau had not yet been decided. It may therefore be accurate to describe the omission of any reference to the earlier statute in the legislative history of the later one as inadvertent. But that merely raises the question of whether it is more realistic to imply an exception to the applicable language of the 1934 Act or to conclude that if Congress had thought about this preference for national banks it nevertheless would have enacted the statute it did enact in 1934. There is no doubt in my mind that the 1934 Congress would have done exactly what it did do even if it had foreseen not *166only this Court’s decision in Langdeau but also the Court’s willingness to construe the federal venue provision in the same “Draconian” fashion as the state provision, to use Judge Friendly’s typically appropriate adjective. I could understand a legislative decision to exempt banks entirely from the coverage of the new law on the theory that an interest in the solvency of national banks entitles them to special immunity, but it seems wholly unrealistic to assume that Congress would treat banks like all other defendants for liability purposes and yet treat them differently for venue purposes.
It is true that we are dealing with only a tiny fraction of the litigation arising under the 1934 Act or of the litigation involving national banks. But that fact merely minimizes the likelihood that a busy Congress will correct an inequitable and anachronistic situation. It is also true that holding the trial in one forum rather than another is hardly an insurmountable burden on either the plaintiff or the bank in this day of easy and rapid transportation — unlike the situation in the Civil War period when the statute that the Court considers controlling was enacted — but the burden on the judiciary is increased by requiring multiple trials whenever national banks participate in an allegedly unlawful securities offering.
In sum, whatever canon of statutory construction is applied, I am persuaded that we are most apt to reflect the intent of Congress faithfully if we give effect to the plain meaning of the 1934 Act and thereby place banks on an equal footing with other corporations which must defend litigation of this kind.
I therefore respectfully dissent.

 T. Sedgwick, The Interpretation and Construction of Statutory *159and Constitutional Law 98 n. (a) (2d ed. 1874). Coincidentally, this advice is found on the same page from which the Court quotes, ante, at 153. We have repeated this principle of statutory construction many times. See, e. g., United States v. Borden Co., 308 U. S. 188, 198: “When there are two acts upon the same subject, the rule is to give effect to both if possible.”

 The rule that the more specific legislation will usually take precedence over the more general rests on the quite reasonable assumption that the legislature’s attention was probably focused more directly on the subject matter of the specific than on only one aspect of a much broader subject matter. But since the venue provision of the Civil War banking legislation was a relatively inconsequential part of the entire statute, there is no reason to assume that it was given any more attention than the venue provision in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

 Sedgwick quotes this familiar rule with approval: “Leges posteriores, priores contrarias abrogant. 'If two inconsistent acts be passed at different times, the last/ said the Master of the Rolls, 'is to be obeyed; and if obedience cannot be observed without derogating from the first, it is the first which must give way. Every act of Parliament must be considered with reference to the state of the law subsisting when it came into operation, and when it is to be applied; it cannot otherwise be rationally construed. Every act is made, either for the purpose of making a change in the law, or for the purpose of better declaring the law; and its operation is not to be impeded by the mere fact that it is inconsistent with some previous enactment.’ ” Sedgwick, supra, at 104. See also United States v. Tynen, 11 Wall. 88, 92.

 12 Stat. 665, 681.

 The federal venue provision was first enacted in 1863, 12 Stat. 681, and in the following year, the provision was amended to authorize suit in state courts. Section 57 of the 1864 Act, which is the predecessor of 12 U. S. C. § 94, reads, in pertinent part as follows:
“Sec. 57. And be it further enacted, That suits, actions, and proceedings, against any association under this act, may be had in any circuit, district, or territorial court of the United States held within the district in which such association may be established; or in any state, county, or municipal court in the county or city in which said association is located, having jurisdiction in similar cases: Provided, however, That all proceedings to enjoin the comptroller under this act shall be had in a circuit, district, or territorial court of the United States, held in the district in which the association is located.” 13 Stat. 116.

 See Charlotte Nat. Bank v. Morgan, 132 U. S. 141, 144; First Nat. Bank v. Union Trust Co., 244 U. S. 416, 428.

 Charlotte Nat. Bank v. Morgan, supra, at 145.

 “The Act’s special right is enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction — federal or state — and removal from a state court is prohibited. If suit be brought in a federal court, the purchaser has a wide choice of venue, the privilege of nation-wide service of process and the jurisdictional $3,000 requirement of diversity cases is inapplicable.” Wilko v. Swan, 346 U. S. 427, 431. Referring to the analogous provision in the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, the Court added: “We said the right to select the ‘forum’ even after the creation of a liability is a ‘substantial right’ and that the agreement, restricting that choice, would thwart the express purpose of the statute. We need not and do not go so far in this present case. By the terms of the agreement to arbitrate, petitioner is restricted in his choice of forum prior to the existence of a controversy. While the Securities Act does not require petitioner to sue, a waiver in advance of a controversy stands upon a different footing. ... On the other hand, it has enacted the Securities Act to protect the rights of investors and has forbidden a waiver of any of those rights.” Id., at 438.

 “No reason can be suggested why one court of a State, rather than another, both being of the same dignity, should take cognizance of a suit against a national bank, except the convenience of the bank. And this consideration supports the view that the exemption of a national bank from suit in any state court except one of the county or city in which it is located is a personal privilege, which it could claim or not, as it deemed necessary.” Charlotte Nat. Bank v. Morgan, supra, at 145.
See also Michigan Nat. Bank v. Robertson, 372 U. S. 591, 594; National Bank v. Associates of Obstetrics, 425 U. S. 460.

 Although the Second Circuit decision in Bruns, Nordeman & Co. v. American Nat. Bank, 394 F. 2d 300, 303 (1968), supports the result reached by the Court in this case, Judge Friendly expressed the opinion that if the court were writing on a clean slate, it would have reached a contrary conclusion; it reached the result it did only because it felt bound by a prior decision of the Second Circuit which it characterized as giving “a construction to the clause of § 94 dealing with the venue of suits in a federal court quite as Draconian as the Supreme Court has done with respect to the state court clause.” The earlier Second Circuit precedent made no analysis of the question whether the clause should be given a mandatory or permissive construction. See Leonardi v. Chase Nat. Bank, 81 F. 2d 19 (1936). It is also noteworthy that when the Third Circuit considered the question, it concluded that the venue provision of the Securities Exchange Act should be accepted at face value. See Ronson Corf. v. Liquifin Aktiengesellschaft, 483 F. 2d 852 (1973); contra: United States Nat. Bank v. Hill, 434 F. 2d 1019 (CA9 1970). The American Law Institute, *164Study of the Division of Jurisdiction between State and Federal Courts 413 (1969), pointed out that there “is no obvious reason why a national bank requires a unique and restrictive venue rule, and cannot be treated as is any other corporation for purposes of venue.”

 The policy of according hiring preference to Indians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs which was involved in Morton v. Mancari, 417 U. S. 535, 550-551, was not only perfectly clear but had been consistently recognized since at least as far back as 1934.

 See, e. g., United States v. Borden Co., 308 U. S. 188, 198; United States v. Philadelphia Nat. Bank, 374 U. S. 321, 350-351; Silver v. New York Stock Exchange, 373 U. S. 341, 359; United States v. National Assn. of Securities Dealers, 422 U. S. 694, 719-720.

 When Congress intends to change a well-recognized and well-established rule of law, it customarily provides us with evidence of that specific intent. But it is unrealistic to expect the Legislature to consider and expressly mention the impact of a new statute on every old rule that it may modify, particularly if the old rule is not *165only unimportant but not even clearly stated at the time the new statute is enacted. In such a setting the new statute should be interpreted in the light of its own history with the expectation that a certain amount of ancient underbrush will inevitably be cut away. Only to the extent that the old roots retain sufficient vitality to support some desirable and discernible purpose at the time of the later enactment is there any real justification for avoiding an implied repeal.

 The Securities Act of 1933 contains explicit exemptions for national banks at 15 U. S. C. §§ 77e (a)(2), 771 (2), as does the Securities Exchange Act at 15 U. S. C. § 781 (i).