536
Opinion of Scalia, J.
by a bill that passes both Houses and is either signed by the President or repassed by a supermajority after his veto. Art. I, § 7. Everything else the Members of Congress do is either prelude or internal organization. Congress can no more express its will by not legislating than an individual Member can express his will by not voting.
Second, even if Congress could express its will by not legislating, the will of a later Congress that a law enacted by an earlier Congress should bear a particular meaning is of no effect whatever. The Constitution puts Congress in the business of writing new laws, not interpreting old ones. "[L]ater enacted laws . . . do not declare the meaning of earlier law." Almendarez-Torres v. United States, ante, at 237; ante, at 269-270 (Scalia, J., dissenting) ("This later amendment can of course not cause [the statute] to have meant, at the time of petitioner's conviction, something different from what it then said"). If the enacted intent of a later Congress cannot change the meaning of an earlier statute, then it should go without saying that the later unenacted intent cannot possibly do so. It should go without saying, and it should go without arguing as well.
I have in the past been critical of the Court's using the so-called legislative history of an enactment (hearings, committee reports, and floor debates) to determine its meaning. See, e. g., Conroy v. Aniskoff, 507 U. S. 511, 518-529 (1993) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment); United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Co., 504 U. S. 505, 521 (1992) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment); Blanchard v. Bergeron, 489 U. S. 87, 98-100 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). Today, however, the Court's fascination with the files of Congress (we must consult them, because they are there) is carried to a new silly extreme. Today's opinion ever-so-carefully analyzes, not legislative history, but the history of legislation-that-never-was. If we take this sort of material seriously, we require conscientious counsel to investigate (at clients' expense) not only the hear-
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