Cite as: 523 U. S. 517 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
finding an implied exception to the operation of so clear a command as that of [§ 3713]." Because both Key and Emory were cases in which the competing claims were unsecured, the statutory command was perfectly clear even under Justice Story's construction of the statute. The statements made in that context, of course, shed no light on the clarity of the command when the United States relies on the statute as a basis for claiming a preference over a secured creditor. Indeed, the Key opinion itself made this specific point: "This case does not raise the question, never decided by this Court, whether § 3466 grants the Government priority over the prior specific liens of secured creditors. See United States v. Gilbert Associates, Inc., 345 U. S. 361, 365-366 (1953)." 397 U. S., at 332, n. 11.
The Key opinion is only one of many in which the Court has noted that despite the age of the statute, and despite the fact that it has been the subject of a great deal of litigation, the question whether it has any application to antecedent perfected liens has never been answered definitively. See United States v. Vermont, 377 U. S. 351, 358, n. 8 (1964) (citing cases). In his dissent in United States v. Gilbert Associates, Inc., 345 U. S. 361 (1953), Justice Frankfurter referred to the Court's reluctance to decide the issue "not only today but for almost a century and a half." 345 U. S., at 367.
The Government's priority as against specific, perfected security interests is, if possible, even less settled with regard to real property. The Court has sometimes concluded that a competing creditor who has not "divested" the debtor of "either title or possession" has only a "general, unperfected lien" that is defeated by the Government's priority. E. g., id., at 366. Assuming the validity of this "title or possession" test for deciding whether a lien on personal property is sufficiently choate for purposes of the priority statute (a question of federal law, see Illinois ex rel. Gordon v. Campbell, 329 U. S., at 371), we are not aware of any decisions since Thelusson applying that theory to claims for real prop-
529
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