720
Scalia, J., dissenting
As for the second step of the Court's analysis: Even if there were justification for giving "revoke" something other than its normal meaning, and even if the meaning the Court adopts were not unheard of, the latter meaning still does not provide the needed authorization for reimposition of supervised release. The statute does not say that the court may "revoke" ("call back," as the Court would have it) only part of the term of supervised release, so there is no argument that some portion remains in place for later use. Thus, even if "revoke" means "call back," a court would need statutory authorization to reimpose this "called back" term of supervised release. But § 3583(e)(3) provides no such authorization. The court is empowered to "revoke" the term; it is empowered to require that "all or part" of the term be served in prison; it is not empowered to reimpose "all or part" of the term as a later term of supervised release.
ford English Dictionary 838 (2d ed. 1989) (OED). Just as current usage would allow one to say that "the emperor called back his decree," so also it would allow one to say that the emperor "revoked" his decree in that figurative sense of "calling it back"—i. e., in the sense of canceling it. It is assuredly not current usage, however—I think not even rare current usage—to use "revoke" to connote a literal calling back. ("Since my bird dog was ranging too far afield, I revoked him.")
The Court chastises this example, suggesting that only a tippling hunter would "revoke" his bird dog, as "dogs cannot be revoked, even though sentencing orders can be." Ante, at 707, n. 9. I could not agree more. However, the definition the Court employs ("call back" without the implication of cancellation) envisions that dogs can be revoked—thus illustrating its obscurity. The OED definition on which the Court relies, see ante, at 706, n. 9, defines "revoke" as "to recall; to call or summon back . . . an animal or thing." 13 OED 838 (2d ed. 1989). The first example it gives of this usage is as follows: "These hounds . . . being acquainted with their masters watchwordes, eyther in revoking or imboldening them to serve the game." Ibid. Of course the Court's "not unheard of" usage, ante, at 706, is not limited to recalling dogs—oxen can be revoked as well, as the OED's third example illustrates: "Ye must revoke The patient Oxe unto the Yoke." 13 OED 838.
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