Cite as: 529 U. S. 694 (2000)
Scalia, J., dissenting
As to the first: The usual, ordinary-English definition of "revoke" is already amply distinguishable from "terminate," and does not have to be tortured into Old English (or actually, transliteration from Old Latin) in order to explain the choice of words. "Terminate" connotes completion rather than cancellation. See American Heritage Dictionary 1852 (3d ed. 1992) (defining "terminate" as "[t]o bring to an end or a halt" or "[t]o occur at or form the end of; conclude or finish"); Webster's New International Dictionary 2605 (2d ed. 1942) (defining "terminate" as "[t]o put an end to; to make to cease; to end . . . to form the conclusion of . . ."). Using "terminate" in subsection (e)(1) and "revoke" (in its ordinary sense) in subsection (e)(3) is not only not inexplicable; it reflects an admirably precise use of language. In subsection (e)(1), the term of supervised release is "terminated" ("brought to an end") because termination is warranted "by the conduct of the defendant released and the interest of justice." The supervised release is treated as fulfilled, and the sentence is complete. In subsection (e)(3), by contrast, the supervised release term is not merely brought to an end; it is annulled and treated as though it had never existed, the defendant receiving no credit for any supervised release served. It would be hard to pick two words more clearly connoting these distinct consequences than "terminate" and "revoke." 2
2 The Court is correct, ante, at 705, n. 7, that my suggested explanation of the difference between "terminate" and "revoke" does not comport with the use of "terminate" in § 3583(g). But the use of the term in that subsection also contradicts the Court's explanation of the difference between the two terms—viz., that "terminate," unlike in its view "revoke," "conclude[s] any possibility of supervised release later," ante, at 704. For the Court evidently believes (contrary to the use of "terminate" in § 3583(g)) that further supervised release is available when a supervisee is reimprisoned for possession of a controlled substance. It would be "fundamentally contrary" to the congressional scheme, the Court asserts, if supervised release following reimprisonment were not available for "one who has already tried liberty and failed," ante, at 709. But the use of "terminate" in
717
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