Cite as: 532 U. S. 731 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
the matter out of court are slim. See Reply Brief for Petitioner 16. The prisoner would be clearly burdened, while the government would obtain little or no value in return. The respondents, however, also have something to say. They argue that requiring exhaustion in these circumstances would produce administrative results that would satisfy at least some inmates who start out asking for nothing but money, since the very fact of being heard and prompting administrative change can mollify passions even when nothing ends up in the pocket. And one may suppose that the administrative process itself would filter out some frivolous claims and foster better-prepared litigation once a dispute did move to the courtroom, even absent formal factfinding. Although we have not accorded much weight to these possibilities in the past, see McCarthy v. Madigan, 503 U. S. 140, 155-156 (1992), Congress, as we explain below, may well have thought we were shortsighted. See infra, at 739-741. In any event, the practical arguments for exhaustion at least suffice to refute Booth's claim that no policy considerations justify respondents' position. The upshot is that pragmatism is inconclusive.
Each of the parties also says that the plain meaning of the words "remedies" and "available" in the phrase "such administrative remedies . . . available" is controlling. But as it turns out both of them quote some of the same dictionary definitions of "available" "remedies," and neither comes up with anything conclusive. Booth says the term "remedy" means a procedure that provides redress for wrong or enforcement of a right, and "available" means having sufficient power to achieve an end sought. See Brief for Petitioner 15-16 (citing Webster's Third New International Dictionary 150, 1920 (1993) (defining "remedy" as "the legal means to recover a right or to prevent or obtain redress for a wrong" and "available" as "having sufficient power or force to achieve an end," "capable of use for the accomplishment of a purpose," and that which "is accessible or may be ob-
737
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007