338
Opinion of the Court
that the language of § 3626(e)(2) "says nothing . . . about the district court's power to modify or suspend the operation of the 'stay,' " post, at 358 (dissenting opinion), § 3626(e)(2) unequivocally mandates that the stay "shall operate during" this specific interval. To allow courts to exercise their equitable discretion to prevent the stay from "operating" during this statutorily prescribed period would be to contradict § 3626(e)(2)'s plain terms. It would mean that the motion to terminate merely may operate as a stay, despite the statute's command that it "shall" have such effect. If Congress had intended to accomplish nothing more than to relieve state defendants of the burden of establishing the prerequisites for a stay, the language of § 3626(e)(2) is, at best, an awkward and indirect means to achieve that result.
Viewing the automatic stay provision in the context of § 3626 as a whole further confirms that Congress intended to prohibit federal courts from exercising their equitable authority to suspend operation of the automatic stay. The specific appeal provision contained in § 3626(e) states that "[a]ny order staying, suspending, delaying, or barring the operation of the automatic stay" of § 3626(e)(2) "shall be appealable" pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 1292(a)(1). § 3626(e)(4). At first blush, this provision might be read as supporting the view that Congress expressly recognized the possibility that a district court could exercise its equitable discretion to enjoin the stay. The two Courts of Appeals that have construed § 3626(e)(2) as preserving the federal courts' equitable powers have reached that conclusion based on this reading of § 3626(e)(4). See Ruiz v. Johnson, 178 F. 3d, at 394; Hadix v. Johnson, 144 F. 3d, at 938. They reasoned that Congress would not have provided for expedited review of such orders had it not intended that district courts would retain the power to enter the orders in the first place. See ibid. In other words, "Congress understood that there would be some cases in which a conscientious district court acting in good faith would perceive that equity required that it suspend"
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