98
O'Connor, J., dissenting
negates language that undeniably bears separate meaning. This is not a step to be undertaken lightly.
Both approaches therefore require rewriting the statute, see ante, at 89. Neither of these rewritings is necessarily more "serious" than the other: At most, each involves doing no more than reversing a change made in committee. Cf. ante, at 90.
The Court argues that, because the reference to chapter 35 occurs in a parenthetical, negating this language does less damage to the statute than concluding that the restrictive language outside the parenthetical is too narrowly drawn. I am aware of no generally accepted canon of statutory construction favoring language outside of parentheses to language within them, see, e. g., W. Eskridge, P. Frickey, & E. Garrett, Legislation and Statutory Interpretation, App. C (2000) (listing canons), nor do I think it wise for the Court to adopt one today. The importance of statutory language depends not on its punctuation, but on its meaning. See United States Nat. Bank of Ore. v. Independent Ins. Agents of America, Inc., 508 U. S. 439, 454 (1993) ("[A] purported plain-meaning analysis based only on punctuation is necessarily incomplete and runs the risk of distorting a statute's true meaning").
The fact that the parenthetical is illustrative does not change the analysis: If Congress' illustration does not match its general description, there is as much reason to question the description as the illustration. Where another general description is possible—and was in fact part of the bill at an earlier stage—Congress' choice of an example that matches the earlier description is at least ambiguous. Moreover, as § 2719(d)'s parenthetical specifically lists statutory sections to be applied to the Nations, one might in fact conclude that the doctrine that the specific governs the general, Crawford Fitting Co. v. J. T. Gibbons, Inc., 482 U. S. 437, 445 (1987), makes this specific parenthetical even more significant than the general restriction that follows.
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