356
Scalia, J., concurring in judgment
not because I believe that jury trial is not constitutionally required (I do not reach that issue), but because the statute can and therefore should be read to provide jury trial.
"[W]here a statute is susceptible of two constructions, by one of which grave and doubtful constitutional questions arise and by the other of which such questions are avoided, our duty is to adopt the latter." United States ex rel. Attorney General v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 213 U. S. 366, 408 (1909). The Copyright Act of 1976 authorizes statutory damages for copyright infringement "in a sum of not less than $500 or more than $20,000 as the court considers just." 17 U. S. C. § 504(c). The Court concludes that it is not "fairly possible," ante, at 345 (internal quotation marks omitted), to read § 504(c) as authorizing jury determination of the amount of those damages. I disagree.
In common legal parlance, the word "court" can mean "[t]he judge or judges, as distinguished from the counsel or jury." Webster's New International Dictionary 611 (2d ed. 1949) (def. 10d). But it also has a broader meaning, which includes both judge and jury. See, e. g., ibid. (def. 10b: "The persons duly assembled under authority of law for the administration of justice"); Black's Law Dictionary 318 (5th ed. 1979) (". . . A body organized to administer justice, and including both judge and jury"). We held in Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U. S. 575 (1978), that a statute authorizing "the court . . . to grant such legal or equitable relief as may be appropriate," 29 U. S. C. § 626(b), could fairly be read to afford a right to jury trial on claims for backpay under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.
As the Court correctly observes, ante, at 347, there was more evidence in Lorillard than there is in the present case that "court" was being used to include the jury. The remedial provision at issue explicitly referred to the " 'powers, remedies, and procedures' " of the Fair Labor Standards Act, under which "it was well established that there was a right to a jury trial," Lorillard, 434 U. S., at 580. The provision's
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