342
Opinion of the Court
believe it follows from the way Congress used identical language elsewhere in § 11503. Section 11503(c) confers jurisdiction upon United States district courts to enforce the terms of § 11503(b) despite the bar otherwise imposed by the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U. S. C. § 1341. Subsection (c)(1) grants district courts the power (under certain circumstances not pertinent here) to prohibit
"an assessment of the rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the true market value of the rail transportation property than the assessed value of all other property subject to a property tax levy in the assessment jurisdiction has to the true market value of all other commercial and industrial property." (Emphasis added.)
In the context of this provision, which concerns the differential assessment of taxed property, the words "property subject to a property tax levy" must mean "taxed property." Given the "normal rule of statutory construction" that " ' "identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning," ' " Sorenson v. Secretary of Treasury, 475 U. S. 851, 860 (1986) (quoting Helvering v. Stockholms Enskilda Bank, 293 U. S. 84, 87 (1934) (in turn quoting Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States, 286 U. S. 427, 433 (1932))), that phrase must carry the same meaning in subsection (a)(4), where it qualifies the definition of "commercial and industrial property."
All this bears on the case before us. Because property "subject to a property tax levy" means property that is taxed, the definition of "commercial and industrial property" excludes property that is exempt. Exempt property, then, is not part of the comparison class against which discrimination is measured under subsections (b)(1)-(3), and it follows that railroads may not challenge property tax exemptions under those provisions.
Page: Index Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007