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Opinion of the Court
instruction about how to "determin[e] the meaning of a[n] Act of Congress," a purpose suggesting the primary sense. If Congress had meant to point further afield, as to legislative history, for example, it would have been natural to use a more spacious phrase, like "evidence of congressional intent," in place of "context."
If "context" thus has a narrow compass, the "indication" contemplated by 1 U. S. C. § 1 has a broader one. The Dictionary Act's very reference to contextual "indication" bespeaks something more than an express contrary definition, and courts would hardly need direction where Congress had thought to include an express, specialized definition for the purpose of a particular Act; ordinary rules of statutory construction would prefer the specific definition over the Dictionary Act's general one. Where a court needs help is in the awkward case where Congress provides no particular definition, but the definition in 1 U. S. C. § 1 seems not to fit. There it is that the qualification "unless the context indicates otherwise" has a real job to do, in excusing the court from forcing a square peg into a round hole.
The point at which the indication of particular meaning becomes insistent enough to excuse the poor fit is of course a matter of judgment, but one can say that "indicates" certainly imposes less of a burden than, say, "requires" or "necessitates." One can also say that this exception from the general rule would be superfluous if the context "indicate[d] otherwise" only when use of the general definition would be incongruous enough to invoke the common mandate of statutory construction to avoid absurd results.3 See, e. g., Mc-3 This rule has been applied throughout the history of 1 U. S. C. § 1 and its predecessors. See, e. g., Green v. Bock Laundry Machine Co., 490 U. S. 504, 510-511 (1989); Trans Alaska Pipeline Rate Cases, 436 U. S. 631, 643 (1978); Commissioner v. Brown, 380 U. S. 563, 571 (1965); Helvering v. Hammel, 311 U. S. 504, 510-511 (1941); United States v. Katz, 271 U. S. 354, 357 (1926); Caminetti v. United States, 242 U. S. 470, 490 (1917); United States v. Kirby, 7 Wall. 482, 486-487 (1869).
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