274
Scalia, J., dissenting
it would be remarkable to attribute such great significance to a passing comment on a conceded point. But in my view it does not say that anyway, since the footnote must be read together with the text as explaining the single basis of jurisdiction (rather than, as the Court would have it, explaining two separate bases of jurisdiction in a case where even the explanation of one is obiter). The language quoted in the footnote is not, as the Court says, from "another part of the same statute," ante, at 254, but is the continuation of the provision quoted in the text, see 12 U. S. C. § 264( j) (1940 ed.). And the complaint in D'Oench, Duhme expressly predicated jurisdiction on the fact that the action was one "aris[ing] under the laws of the United States." Tr. of Record in D'Oench, Duhme & Co. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., O. T. 1941, No. 206, p. 3. The language in this case is a thin reed upon which to rest abandonment of the rudimentary principle (followed even in other "sue and be sued" cases) that a statute should be given the meaning suggested by the "natural import" of its terms. Bankers Trust, supra, at 304.
III
Finally, the Court argues that a jurisdictional reading of the Red Cross Charter is required by the canon of construction that an amendment to a statute ordinarily should not be read as having no effect. Ante, at 263. The original "sue and be sued" clause in the Red Cross Charter did not contain the phrase "State or Federal," and the Court argues that its reading—which gives decisive weight to that addition— is therefore strongly to be preferred. Ibid. I do not agree. Even if it were the case that my reading of the clause rendered this phrase superfluous, I would consider that a small price to pay for adhering to the competing (and more important) canon that statutory language should be construed in accordance with its ordinary meaning. And it would seem particularly appropriate to run the risk of surplusage here, since the amendment in question was one of a number of
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