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(substituting “petitioners” for “the foster care provider”)10 the
payments may be excluded only if they were paid “for caring * * *
in the petitioners' home”. (Emphasis added.)
We believe that in ordinary, everyday speech the phrase “the
petitioners' home” means the place (or places) where petitioners
reside. Put more plainly, in order for a “house” to constitute
“petitioners' home”, petitioners must live in that house. As
Justice Scalia has recently written: “People call a house
`their’ home when legal title is in the bank, when they rent it,
and even when they merely occupy it rent-free--so long as they
actually live there.” Minnesota v. Carter, 525 U.S. , ,
67 U.S.L.W. 4017, 4021 (1998) (Scalia, J., concurring). In the
words of the poet's cliche, “It takes a heap o' livin' in a house
t' make it home.”11
The concept of home as residence is included in many
everyday definitions of a person's home. For example, Webster's
Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 577 (1990) includes among its
definitions of home: "one's place of residence: DOMICILE"; and
“the focus of one's domestic attention”. Similarly, Webster's
New World Dictionary 645 (3d College ed. 1988) includes among its
definitions “the place where a person (or family) lives; * * *
10 As stated supra note 6, we assume for purposes of
argument that petitioners were "foster care providers" with
respect to all four properties.
11 Guest, "Home", reprinted in Stevenson, The Home Book of
Quotations 904 (9th ed. 1958).
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