Cite as: 503 U. S. 429 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
for judicial determination of the lawfulness of those sales. Section 318 did not instruct the courts whether any particular timber sales would violate subsections (b)(3) and (b)(5), just as the MBTA, for example, does not instruct the courts whether particular sales would "kill" or "take" any northern spotted owl. Indeed, § 318 could not instruct that any particular BLM timber sales were lawful under the new standards, because subsection (b)(5) incorporated by reference the harvesting prohibitions imposed by a BLM agreement not yet in existence when the Compromise was enacted. See n. 1, supra.
Respondents cite three textual features of subsection
(b)(6)(A) in support of their conclusion that the provision failed to supply new law, but directed results under old law. First, they emphasize the imperative tone of the provision, by which Congress "determine[d] and direct[ed]" that compliance with two new provisions would constitute compliance with five old ones. Respondents argue that "Congress was directing the subsection [only] at the courts." Brief for Respondents Seattle Audubon Society et al. 34. Petitioners, for their part, construe the subsection as "a directive [only] to the Forest Service and BLM." Brief for Petitioners 30. We think that neither characterization is entirely correct. A statutory directive binds both the executive officials who administer the statute and the judges who apply it in particular cases—even if (as is usually the case) Congress fails to preface its directive with an empty phrase like "Congress . . . directs that." Here, we fail to see how inclusion of the "Congress . . . directs that" preface undermines our conclusion that what Congress directed—to agencies and courts alike—was a change in law, not specific results under old law.
Second, respondents argue that subsection (b)(6)(A) did not modify old requirements because it deemed compliance with new requirements to "mee[t]" the old requirements. We fail to appreciate the significance of this observation. Congress might have modified MBTA directly, for example,
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