212
Thomas, J., dissenting
cal requirements, the limitation of § 1915 to individuals puts no unconstitutional burden on the right to associate in the manner suggested.
VI
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded with instructions that the case be remanded to the District Court, where the motion for leave to file in forma pauperis must be denied.
So ordered.
Justice Kennedy, dissenting.
In determining whether the context of a statute indicates an intent to confine a word to a meaning more narrow than the one contained in the Dictionary Act, 1 U. S. C. § 1, it seems to me permissible to ask whether the broad Dictionary Act definition is compatible with a workable construction of the statute. To the extent the Court attempts to uncover significant practical barriers to including artificial entities within 28 U. S. C. § 1915, its analysis is quite appropriate and ought not to be condemned as policymaking. The problem, in my view, is that the Court does not succeed in this attempt. As the dissenting opinion by Justice Thomas well illustrates, the broad definition of "person," the one the Dictionary Act tells us to prefer, is not inconsistent with a commonsense, workable implementation of § 1915.
With this observation, I join Justice Thomas' dissenting opinion.
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Blackmun, Justice Stevens, and Justice Kennedy join, dissenting.
The parties agree that the interpretive point of departure in deciding whether an association is a "person" for purposes of the in forma pauperis statute, 28 U. S. C. § 1915, is the first section of the United States Code. The question presented in this case may thus be formulated as follows: Must the presumption codified in 1 U. S. C. § 1—namely, that "[i]n
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