526
Scalia, J., concurring in judgment
of the 1942 Amendments, suggests an intent to protect those who were prejudiced by military service, as many who were drafted would be.
The Court also errs in mistaking the probable effect of Congress's presumed awareness of our earlier opinions in Ebert and Boone. See ante, at 516. In Boone, we stated that the Act "is always to be liberally construed to protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation," 319 U. S., at 575 (emphasis added), but that discretion was vested in the courts to ensure that the immunities of the Act are not put to "unworthy use," ibid., since "the very heart of the policy of the Act" was to provide "judicial discretion . . . instead of rigid and undiscriminating suspension of civil proceedings," id., at 565. Awareness of Boone would likely have caused Congress to assume that the courts would vindicate "the very heart of the policy of the Act" by requiring a showing of prejudice. The Court argues, however, that Congress would also have been aware that Ebert recognized the "carefully segregated arrangement of the various provisions" of the Act, ante, at 516. It is already an extension of the normal convention to assume that Congress was aware of the precise reasoning (as opposed to the holding) of earlier judicial opinions; but it goes much further to assume that Congress not only knew, but expected the courts would continue to follow, the reasoning of a case (Ebert) whose holding Congress had repudiated six years earlier. See supra, at 523. In any event, the Court seeks to use Ebert only to establish that Congress was aware that this Court was aware of the "carefully segregated arrangement" of the Act. That adds little, if anything, to direct reliance upon the plain language of the statute.
After reading the above described legislative history, one might well conclude that the result reached by the Court today, though faithful to law, betrays the congressional intent. Many have done so. Indeed, as far as I am aware, every court that has chosen to interpret § 205 in light of its
Page: Index Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007