718
Scalia, J., dissenting
The first step of the Court's analysis—its inference that the use of "terminate" in subsection (e)(1) requires its alternative meaning of "revoke" in subsection (e)(3)—is also wrong because the alternative meaning that the Court posits ("to call or summon back," without the implication of annulment, ante, at 706) is not merely (as the Court says) "less common," ante, at 706, n. 9; in the context that is relevant here, it is utterly unheard of. One can "call or summon back" a person or thing without implication of annulment, but it is quite impossible to "call or summon back" an order or decree without that implication—which is precisely why the primary meaning of revoke has shifted from its root meaning ("call or summon back") to the meaning that it bears in its most common context, i. e., when applied to orders or decrees ("cancel or annul"). Of course the acid test of whether a word can reasonably bear a particular meaning is whether you could use the word in that sense at a cocktail party without having people look at you funny. The Court's assigned meaning would surely fail that test, even late in the evening. Try telling someone, "Though I do not cancel or annul my earlier action, I revoke it." The notion that Con§ 3583(g) prescribes just that. Further, § 3583(g) undermines the Court's argument that because § 3583(e)(3) authorizes the court to "revoke a term of supervised release" and then to require "all or part of the term" to be served in prison, the revoked term must retain some metaphysical vitality. See ante, at 705-706. This is so because § 3583(g) provides that the court shall "terminate the term of supervised release" (hence extinguishing it even in the Court's view), and yet goes on to provide that the court shall require the defendant to serve at least one-third of "the term of supervised release" in prison. See infra, at 721. So on either the Court's interpretation of the difference between "terminate" and "revoke" or on mine, the use of "terminate" in § 3583(g) was a mistake—which is why Congress has since amended it to read "revoke." See § 110505, 108 Stat. 2017. See also Brief for United States 25, n. 20 ("Congress apprehended that the term 'terminate' was inappropriate [in § 3583(g)]"). If we both concede it was a mistake, that leaves my explanation of the difference between "terminate" in § 3583(e)(1) and "revoke" in § 3583(e)(3) uncontradicted.
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