Cite as: 513 U. S. 374 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
sional label. As we said of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in deciding whether debts owed it were owed the United States Government: "That the Congress chose to call it a corporation does not alter its characteristics so as to make it something other than what it actually is . . . ." Cherry Cotton Mills, Inc. v. United States, 327 U. S. 536, 539 (1946).
Amtrak points to two of our opinions that characterize Amtrak as a nongovernmental entity. The first is National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Boston & Maine Corp., 503 U. S. 407, 410 (1992), which describes the corporation as "not an agency or instrumentality of the United States Government." But the governmental or nongovernmental nature of Amtrak had no conceivable relevance to the issues before the Court in Boston & Maine. The quoted characterization, similar to that contained in the statute, was merely set forth at the beginning of the opinion, in describing the factual background of the case. It is hard to imagine weaker dictum.
The second case is National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 470 U. S. 451 (1985). There the governmental character of Amtrak was marginally relevant. The railroads opposing Amtrak in the case argued that a subsequent statute reneging on the Government's own obligations was subject to a "more rigorous standard of review" under the Due Process Clause than a statute impairing private contractual obligations. Id., at 471. The Court said it did not have to consider that question because the contracts in question were "not between the railroads and the United States but simply between the railroads and the nongovernmental corporation, Amtrak." Id., at 470. But it develops, later in the opinion, that the Court would not have had to consider that question anyway, since it concluded that the contracts (whether those of the United States or not) did not incur the obligation alleged. The effect of the apparent reliance upon Amtrak's nongov-
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