770
Breyer, J., dissenting
tence. See USSG §§ 3D1.2(d), 3D1.3(b).) No one thinks that Congress intended the Commission to write its "career offender" Guideline with an eye toward the maximum sentences that this kind of statute (the "multiple sentences" statute) theoretically would authorize.
The majority, in providing a set of arguments for the correct conclusion that the phrase "maximum term authorized" does not include the statute just mentioned, effectively concedes this point. The majority cannot say that the terms of imprisonment authorized by this statute do not even potentially fall within the scope of the phrase "maximum term authorized," for the majority's interpretation of this statute—intended to avoid its application—is itself neither obvious nor even necessarily correct. (Compare the majority's use of the words "term of imprisonment," for example, see ante, at 758, n. 4, with the numerous instances in which sentencing law, including a portion of the "multiple sentence" statute itself, 18 U. S. C. § 3584(c), uses those words to refer to the actual time to be served as the result of a sentence imposed on a defendant. E. g., §§ 3582, 3585, 3621, 3624.) And once one understands the need to engage in rather complex exercises in statutory interpretation to separate out, from the set of all potentially applicable sentencing statutes, those to which the word "authorized" refers, one understands that the referent of that word "authorized" is not obvious—and that is the main point here at issue.
Nor can one resolve the linguistic ambiguity by claiming (as the drafters of the relevant statutory language seem to have claimed, see infra, at 775) that Congress simply meant to refer to the maximum statutory penalties for the "offenses" of which offenders are convicted. That is because the word "offense" is a technical term in the criminal law, referring to a crime made up of statutorily defined "elements." See Staples v. United States, 511 U. S. 600, 604 (1994); Liparota v. United States, 471 U. S. 419, 424 (1985). Although some criminal statutes consider recidivism an ele-
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