708
Opinion of Stevens, J.
work a dramatic alteration in the law governing misconduct in the court system or the Legislature. The unlikelihood of such a scenario only strengthens our conclusion that the Bramblett Court erred in its interpretation of § 1001's statutory history.
Putting Bramblett's historical misapprehensions to one side, however, we believe the Bramblett Court committed a far more basic error in its underlying approach to statutory construction. Courts should not rely on inconclusive statutory history as a basis for refusing to give effect to the plain language of an Act of Congress, particularly when the Legislature has specifically defined the controverted term. In Bramblett, the Court's method of analysis resulted in a decision that is at war with the text of not one, but two different Acts of Congress.
Whether the doctrine of stare decisis nevertheless requires that we accept Bramblett's erroneous interpretation of § 1001 is a question best answered after reviewing the body of law directly at issue: the decisions adopting the judicial function exception.
IV
Although other federal courts have refrained from directly criticizing Bramblett's approach to statutory construction, it is fair to say that they have greeted the decision with something less than a warm embrace. The judicial function exception, an obvious attempt to impose limits on Bramblett's expansive reading of § 1001, is a prime example. As the following discussion indicates, the judicial function exception is almost as deeply rooted as Bramblett itself.
The seeds of the exception were planted by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit only seven years after Bramblett was decided. In Morgan v. United States, 309 F. 2d 234 (1962), cert. denied, 373 U. S. 917 (1963), the defendant, who had falsely held himself out to be a bona fide member of the bar, was prosecuted on three counts of violating § 1001 for concealing from the court his name, identity,
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