244
Opinion of the Court
199. Amended § 207 still trains on income generated from the land, not on the value of the parcel. The Court observed in Irving that "[e]ven if . . . the income generated by such parcels may be properly thought of as de minimis," the value of the land may not fit that description. 481 U. S., at 714. The parcels at issue in Irving were valued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs at $2,700 and $1,816, amounts we found "not trivial." Ibid. The value of the disputed parcels in this case is not of a different order; as the Ninth Circuit reported, the value of decedent Youpee's fractional interests was $1,239. 67 F. 3d, at 199. In short, the economic impact of amended § 207 might still be palpable.
Even if the economic impact of amended § 207 is not significantly less than the impact of the original provision, the United States correctly comprehends that Irving rested primarily on the "extraordinary" character of the governmental regulation. Irving stressed that the original § 207 "amount[ed] to virtually the abrogation of the right to pass on a certain type of property—the small undivided interest—to one's heirs." 481 U. S., at 716; see also id., at 717 ("both descent and devise are completely abolished"). The Irving Court further noted that the original § 207 "effectively abolish[ed] both descent and devise [of fractional interests] even when the passing of the property to the heir might result in consolidation of property." Id., at 716. As the United States construes Irving, Congress cured the fatal infirmity in § 207 when it revised the section to allow transmission of fractional interests to successors who already own an interest in the allotment.
Congress' creation of an ever-so-slight class of individuals equipped to receive fractional interests by devise does not suffice, under a fair reading of Irving, to rehabilitate the measure. Amended § 207 severely restricts the right of an individual to direct the descent of his property. Allowing a decedent to leave an interest only to a current owner in the
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