Cite as: 508 U. S. 491 (1993)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
The phrase "business of insurance" is used three times and in two different clauses of the Act. The first clause of § 1012(b) is directed to the States, and provides that state laws enacted for the purpose of regulating the business of insurance are saved from pre-emption if there is no conflicting federal law which relates specifically to the business of insurance. The second clause of § 1012(b) is directed at insurers, and allows insurers an exemption from the federal antitrust laws for activities regulated by state law which qualify as the business of insurance. Respondent has argued that cases such as Royal Drug and Pireno, which addressed whether certain activities of insurers constituted the "business of insurance" under the second clause of § 1012(b), do not control cases in which the first clause of § 1012(b) is at issue. On the way to accepting respondent's suggestion, the majority observes, ante, at 504, that the phrase "business of insurance" in the first clause of § 1012(b) is "not so narrowly circumscribed" as the identical phrase in the second clause.
It is true that laws enacted for the purpose of regulating the business of insurance are something different from activities of insurers constituting the business of insurance, ibid., but in my mind this distinction does not compel a conclusion that cases such as Royal Drug and Pireno have no application here. As an initial matter, it would be unusual to conclude that the meaning of the phrase "business of insurance" is transformed from one clause to the next. Such a conclusion runs counter to the basic rule of statutory construction that identical words used in different parts of the same Act are intended to have the same meaning. Sullivan v. Stroop, 496 U. S. 478, 484 (1990); Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States, 286 U. S. 427, 433 (1932). While maxims of statutory construction admit of exceptions, there are other obstacles to adopting the view that cases such as Royal Drug and Pireno apply only in the antitrust realm. First, nothing in Royal Drug or Pireno discloses a purpose
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