Cite as: 505 U. S. 247 (1992)
Scalia, J., dissenting
That paraphrasing of the railroad charter, in terms that would spell jurisdiction under the key the Court adopts today, belies any notion that Bankers Trust was using the same code book.3
The fourth and final case relied upon by the Court is D'Oench, Duhme & Co. v. FDIC, 315 U. S. 447 (1942). In that case, we granted certiorari to consider whether a federal court in a nondiversity action must apply the conflict-of-laws rules of the forum State. We ultimately did not address that question (because we concluded that the rule of decision was provided by federal, rather than state, law, see id., at 456), but in the course of setting forth the question presented, we noted that, as all parties had conceded, the jurisdiction of the federal district court did not rest on diversity:
"Respondent, a federal corporation, brings this suit under an Act of Congress authorizing it to sue or be sued 'in any court of law or equity, State or Federal.' Sec. 12 B, Federal Reserve Act; 12 U. S. C. § 264( j).2
"2 That subdivision of the Act further provides: 'All suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity to which the Corporation shall be a party shall be deemed to arise under the laws of the United States . . . .'"
Id., at 455-456.
The Court relies heavily on this case, which it views as holding that a statute granting a corporation the power " 'to sue or be sued "in any court of law or equity, State or Federal" ' " establishes jurisdiction in federal district courts. Ante, at 254-255. Even if the quoted language did say that,
3 The Court's protest, ante, at 257, n. 9, that its interpretive rule should not be applied to Bankers Trust's paraphrase of the railroad charter at issue in that case is a frank confession that that rule has no relation to ordinary principles for discerning meaning in the English language—i. e., it has no relation to the very principles that we have consistently purported to apply in this area.
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