622
Opinion of the Court
Such a rejoinder would not pass muster under the Privacy Act, however, because a provision of the Act not previously mentioned indicates beyond serious doubt that general damages are not authorized for a statutory violation. An uncodified section of the Act established a Privacy Protection Study Commission, which was charged, among its other jobs, to consider "whether the Federal Government should be liable for general damages incurred by an individual as the result of a willful or intentional violation of the provisions of sections 552a(g)(1)(C) or (D) of title 5." 4 § 5(c)(2)(B)(iii), 88 Stat. 1907. Congress left the question of general damages, that is, for another day. Because presumed damages are therefore clearly unavailable, we have no business treating just any adversely affected victim of an intentional or willful violation as entitled to recovery, without something more.
This inference from the terms of the Commission's mandate is underscored by drafting history showing that Congress cut out the very language in the bill that would have authorized any presumed damages.5 The Senate bill would have authorized an award of "actual and general damages
able for privacy torts "in the same way in which general damages are given for defamation," without proof of "pecuniary loss [or] physical harm"); see also 3 Restatement (Second) of Torts § 621, Comment a (1976).
4 The Commission ultimately recommended that the Act should "permit the recovery of special and general damages . . . but in no case should a person entitled to recovery receive less than the sum of $1,000 or more than the sum of $10,000 for general damages in excess of the dollar amount of any special damages." Personal Privacy in an Information Society: The Report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission 531 (July 1977).
5 On this point, we do not understand Justice Ginsburg's dissent to take issue with our conclusion that Congress explicitly rejected the proposal to make presumed damages available for Privacy Act violations. Instead, Justice Ginsburg appears to argue only that Congress would have wanted nonpecuniary harm to qualify as actual damages under subsection (g)(4)(A). Post, at 635, n. 4 (plaintiff may recover for emotional distress " 'that he proves to have been actually suffered by him' " (quoting 3 Restatement (Second) of Torts, supra, at 402, Comment b)). That issue, however, is not before us today. See n. 12, infra.
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