stating in relation to the surplusage canon that "canons of construction are no more than rules of thumb that help courts determine the meaning of legislation, and in interpreting a statute a court should always turn first to one, cardinal canon before all others. We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. When the words of a statute are unambiguous, then, this first canon is also the last: judicial inquiry is complete."
How later courts described this case
- stating in relation to the surplusage canon that "canons of construction are no more than rules of thumb that help courts determine the meaning of legislation, and in interpreting a statute a court should always turn first to one, cardinal canon before all others. We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. When the words of a statute are unambiguous, then, this first canon is also the last: judicial inquiry is complete."
- explaining that canons of construction, like the canon against surplusage, "are no more than rules of thumb that help courts determine the meaning of legislation, and in interpreting a statute a court should always turn first to one, cardinal canon before all others," the canon "that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there"
- Stating that the “cardinal canon” of statutory interpretation is that courts “must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there... .When the words of a statute are unambiguous, then, this first canon is also the last: ‘judicial inquiry is complete.’ ” (citation omitted)
- finding that the statute governing appellate jurisdiction for bankruptcy cases does not preclude interlocutory appeals under 28 U.S.C. section 1292, because “so long as there is no ‘positive repugnancy’ between two laws, ... a court must give effect to both.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Later courts went against this
Questioned by Stanley v. Crossland (In re Lakeshore Village Resort, Ltd.), 81 F.3d 103 (1996)
Ltd. v. Nichols (In re Nichols), 21 F.3d 690, 692 n. 8 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 422, 130 L.Ed.2d 337 (1994); Vylene, 968 F.2d at 892, 894; but see Bonner Mall, 2 F.3d at 904 n. 11 (stating in dicta that “nothing in Germain casts doubt upon the liberal standard for finality we have adopted regarding § 158(d)”).
Questioned by Congrejo Investments, LLC v. Mann, 586 F.3d 1159 (2009)
(Germain), the Supreme Court cast doubt on our application of a flexible standard to section 158(d), by reasoning that sections 158(d) and 1291 were coextensive in their application to district courts acting as bankruptcy appellate courts. 503 U.S. 249, 253, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992).
The opinion
Justice O’Connor,
with whom Justice White and Justice Blackmun join, concurring in the judgment.
I agree that when Congress enacted 28 U. S. C. § 158 (d) as part of the Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984, Congress probably did not intend to deprive the courts of appeals of their longstanding jurisdiction over interlocutory appeals in bankruptcy cases. But I think we should admit that this construction of the statutes does render § 158(d) largely superfluous, and that we do strive to interpret statutes so as to avoid redundancy. Cf. ante, at 253-254. In this case, I think it far more likely that Congress inadvertently created a redundancy than that Congress intended to withdraw appellate jurisdiction over interlocutory bankruptcy appeals by the roundabout method of reconfer-ring jurisdiction over appeals from final bankruptcy orders. I would reverse the judgment below only for this reason.