Cite as: 505 U. S. 247 (1992)
Scalia, J., dissenting
§ 3161, p. 975 (3d ed. 1927) ("[The power to sue and be sued] is expressly conferred in practically every incorporating act"); Loeffler v. Frank, 486 U. S. 549, 554-557 (1988) ("sue and be sued" clause waives sovereign immunity).
It is beyond question that nothing in the language of this provision suggests that it has anything to do with regulating the jurisdiction of the federal courts. The grant of corporate power to sue and be sued in no way implies a grant of federal-court jurisdiction; it merely places the corporation on the same footing as a natural person, who must look elsewhere to establish grounds for getting his case into court. Words conferring authority upon a corporation are a most illogical means of conferring jurisdiction upon a court, and would not normally be understood that way. Moreover, it would be extraordinary to confer a new subject-matter jurisdiction upon "federal courts" in general, rather than upon a particular federal court or courts.
The Court apparently believes, see ante, at 256, n. 8, that the language of § 2 is functionally equivalent to a specific reference to the district courts, since no other court could reasonably have been intended to be the recipient of the jurisdictional grant. Perhaps so, but applying that intuition requires such a random butchering of the text that it is much more reasonable to assume that no court was the intended recipient. The Red Cross is clearly granted the capacity to sue and be sued in all federal courts, so that it could appear, for example, as a party in a third-party action in the Court of International Trade, see 28 U. S. C. § 1583, and in an action before the United States Claims Court, see Claims Court Rule 14(a) (Mar. 15, 1991). There is simply no textual basis, and no legal basis except legal intuition, for saying that it must in addition establish an independent basis of jurisdiction to proceed in those courts, though it does not in the district courts.
In fact, the language of this provision not only does not distinguish among federal courts, it also does not treat fed-
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