Cite as: 511 U. S. 39 (1994)
Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment
tion (a)(1), not to Congress' use of the phrase "revoke the sentence of probation" in § 3565(a)(2). Taken by itself, that phrase requires termination of the original sentence of probation, but does not indicate the kind of sentence that must be imposed in its place. The meaning assumed by the phrase "revoke the sentence of probation" in the particular context of § 3565(a)(2), then, does not travel when the same phrase appears in a different context.
The Government's argument that "revoke the sentence of probation," standing alone, must import a sentence of imprisonment also fails to account for how similar language is used in § 7303(b)(2) of the 1988 Act. That provision, as noted above, states that "the court shall terminate the term of supervised release and require the defendant to serve in prison not less than one-third of the term of supervised release" if a defendant is found in possession of drugs. 18 U. S. C. § 3583(g) (emphasis added). The statutory text suggests that a subsequent sentence of imprisonment is not implicit in the phrase "the court shall terminate the term of supervised release"; had it been, Congress would not have felt it necessary to mandate imprisonment in an explicit manner. So there is little reason to think that Congress believed imprisonment to be implicit in the parallel phrase "the court shall revoke the sentence of probation" in the § 3565(a) drug proviso, § 7303(a)(2) of the 1988 Act.
The Government's view suffers from a final infirmity. The term "original sentence" refers to the sentence of probation imposed at the initial sentencing. So if the proviso imposed a minimum punishment of incarceration, the length of incarceration must be tied to the length of the revoked sentence of probation. That would be an odd result. " '[I]mprisonment is an 'intrinsically different' form of punishment' " than probation. Blanton v. North Las Vegas, 489 U. S. 538, 542 (1989), quoting Muniz v. Hoffman, 422 U. S. 454, 477 (1975). Without belaboring the point, probation is a form of "condi-
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