-80- Moreover, apart from the previously mentioned differences, the Court in Natl. Cable & Telecomm. Association v. Brand X Internet Servs., supra, stated that regulatory interpretations do not prevail over a contrary previous judicial interpretation when the judicial tribunal referred to the interpreted statute as unambiguous. Although the judicial tribunals in Ardbern Co. v. Commissioner, 120 F.2d 424 (4th Cir. 1941), Blenheim Co. v. Commissioner, 125 F.2d 906 (4th Cir. 1942), and Anglo-Am. Direct Tea Trading Co. v. Commissioner, supra, did not state explicitly that they were applying the unambiguous meaning of the word “manner”, we believe that they did so, given their analysis and the fact that their interpretation of that word was purely one of statutory construction that resulted from the employment of traditional tools of statutory construction. “It is emphatically, the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is”, Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 177 (1803), and “If a court, employing traditional tools of statutory construction, ascertains that Congress had an intention on the precise question at issue, that intention is the law and must be given effect”, Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. at 843 n.9; see also INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 432 (1987). Moreover, where “the only or principal dispute relates to the meaning of the statutory term, the controversy must ultimately be resolved,Page: Previous 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011