548
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
pense"); cf. McCarthy v. Madigan, 503 U. S. 140, 145 (1992) (exhaustion of administrative remedies "appl[ies] with particular force when the action under review involves exercise of the agency's discretionary power or when the agency proceedings in question allow the agency to apply its special expertise") (citing McKart v. United States, 395 U. S. 185, 194 (1969)).
To make a bad matter worse, the Court faults the Government for not "afford[ing respondent] an opportunity" to pursue this remedy. Ante, at 537. This makes one wonder whether we are entering an era where internal revenue agents must give warnings to delinquent taxpayers and lien-ees analogous to the warnings required in criminal cases by our decision in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). Certainly the Court has never so held before, and one may hope that it would not so hold in the future. Indeed, since respondent concedes in her brief that the Government was not required to tell her about the discretionary relief available, Brief for Respondent 20, it is surprising to see the Court suggest to the contrary.
If this case involved the interpretation of a statute designed to confer new benefits or rights upon a class of individuals, today's decision would be more understandable, since such a statute would be "entitled to a liberal construction to accomplish its beneficent purposes." Cosmopolitan Shipping Co. v. McAllister, 337 U. S. 783 (1949) (construing the Jones Act); see also Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Buell, 480 U. S. 557, 562 (1987) (stating that the Federal Employers' Liability Act is a "broad remedial statute" which must be given a " 'liberal construction' "). But it would surely come as news to the millions of taxpayers in this country that the Internal Revenue Code has a "beneficent purpose" as far as they are concerned. It does not, and the Court is mistaken to decide this case in a way that can only be justified if it does.
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