266
Scalia, J., dissenting
gests that subsection (b) of the 1990 statute was meant to be parallel with subsection (a)—i. e., that both subsections were meant to set forth not merely penalties but also offenses.6
After considering the subject matter and statutory language, the third factor the Court considers in arriving at its determination that this statute can only be read as a sentencing enhancement is the title of the 1988 amendment that added subsection (b)(2): "Criminal Penalties for Reentry of Certain Deported Aliens." See § 7345, 102 Stat. 4471, cited ante, at 234. Of course, this title pertains to a subsection (b)(2) which, unlike the (b)(2) under which petitioner was convicted, was not parallel with the preceding subsection (a). But even disregarding that, the title of the amendment proves nothing at all. While "Criminal Penalties for Re-entry" might normally be more suggestive of an enhancement than of a separate offense, there is good reason to believe it imports no such suggestion here. For the very next provision of the same enactment, which adjusts the substantive requirements for the crime of aiding and abetting the unlawful entry of an alien, is entitled "Criminal Penalties for Aiding or Assisting Certain Aliens to Enter the United States." See § 7346, 102 Stat. 4471. Evidently, new substantive offenses that were penalized were simply entitled "Criminal Penalties" for the relevant offense. Moreover,
6 Immediately after stressing the significance of the 1988 version of § 1326(a), the Court dismisses the 1990 amendment that eliminated the 1988 language upon which it relies, as a "housekeeping measure" by which "Congress [did not] inten[d] to change, or to clarify, the fundamental relationship between" subsections (a) and (b). Ante, at 234. The Court offers no support for this confident characterization, unless it is the mistaken assumption that statutory changes or clarifications unconfirmed by legislative history are inoperative. "Suffice it to say that legislative history need not confirm the details of changes in the law effected by statutory language before we will interpret that language according to its natural meaning." Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U. S. 374, 385, n. 2 (1992).
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