454
Opinion of the Court
in these circumstances obviously presumes that otherwise the federal tax lien would prevail—i. e., that the federal tax lien is ordinarily dated, for purposes of "first in time" priority against § 6323(a) competing interests, from the time of its filing, regardless of when it attaches to the subject property.7
The Bank argues that "[b]y common law, the first lien of record against a debtor's property has priority over those subsequently filed unless a lien-creating statute clearly shows or declares an intention to cause the statutory lien to override." Brief for Respondent Zions First National Bank, N. A., 11.8 Such a strong "first-to-record" presumption may be appropriate for simultaneously perfected liens under ordinary statutes creating private liens, which ordinarily arise
7 The dissent contends that "there is no persuasive reason for not adopting as a matter of federal law the well-recognized common-law rule of parity and giving the Bank an equal interest in the property." Post, at 461, n. 4. As we have explained, the persuasive reason is the existence of § 6323(c), which displays the assumption that all perfected security interests are defeated by the federal tax lien. There is no reason why this assumption should not extend to judgment liens as well. A "security interest," as defined in § 6323, is not an insignificant creditor's preference. The term includes only interests protected against subsequent judgment liens. See 26 U. S. C. §§ 6323(h)(1) and 6323(c)(1)(B). Moreover, the text of § 6323(a) ("The lien . . . shall not be valid as against any purchaser, holder of a security interest, mechanic's lienor, or judgment lien creditor") treats security interests and judgment liens alike. Parity may be, as the dissent says, a "well-recognized common-law rule," post, at 461, n. 4, but we have not hitherto adopted it as the federal law of tax liens in 127 years of tax lien enforcement.
8 The dissent notes that "[n]othing in the law of judgment liens suggests that the possibility, which existed at the time the Bank docketed its judgment, that the McDermotts would not acquire the specific property here at issue was a 'contingency' that rendered the Bank's otherwise perfected general judgment lien subordinate to intervening liens." Post, at 460. Perhaps. But priorities here are determined, not by "the law of judgment liens," but by § 6323(a), as our case law has interpreted it. The requirement that competing state liens be perfected is part of that jurisprudence.
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