Cite as: 524 U. S. 569 (1998)
Souter, J., dissenting
sponse is that reading the statute as a mandate that may be satisfied merely by selecting diverse panels renders § 954(d)(1) essentially redundant of § 959(c), which provides that the review panels must comprise "individuals reflecting a wide geographic, ethnic, and minority representation as well as individuals reflecting diverse artistic and cultural points of view." Statutory interpretations that "render superfluous other provisions in the same enactment" are strongly disfavored. Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U. S. 868, 877 (1991) (internal quotation marks omitted).
C
A third try at avoiding constitutional problems is the Court's disclaimer of any constitutional issue here because "[§] 954(d)(1) adds 'considerations' to the grant-making process; it does not preclude awards to projects that might be deemed 'indecent' or 'disrespectful,' nor place conditions on grants, or even specify that those factors must be given any particular weight in reviewing an application." Ante, at 580-581. Since "§ 954(d)(1) admonishes the NEA merely to take 'decency and respect' into consideration," ante, at 582, not to make funding decisions specifically on those grounds, the Court sees no constitutional difficulty.
That is not a fair reading. Just as the statute cannot be read as anything but viewpoint based, or as requiring nothing more than diverse review panels, it cannot be read as tolerating awards to spread indecency or disrespect, so long as the review panel, the National Council on the Arts, and the Chairperson have given some thought to the offending qualities and decided to underwrite them anyway. That, after all, is presumably just what prompted the congressional outrage in the first place, and there was nothing naive about the Representative who said he voted for the bill because it does "not tolerate wasting Federal funds for sexually explicit photographs [or] sacrilegious works." 136 Cong. Rec. 28676 (1990).
609
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