Cite as: 537 U. S. 293 (2003)
Breyer, J., dissenting
private creditor who has taken an appropriate security interest to repossess property for nonpayment—even after bankruptcy. See, e. g., Farrey, supra, at 297. Would Congress want to say that the Government cannot ever do the same?
II
To read the statute in light of its purpose makes clear that Congress did not want always to prohibit the Government from enforcing a sales contract through repossession. Nor did it intend an interpretation so broad that it would threaten unnecessarily to deprive the American public of the full value of public assets that it owns. Cf. 47 U. S. C. §§ 309( j)(1)-(4) (authorization of spectrum auctions with restrictions "to protect the public interest"). Congress instead intended the statute's language to implement a less far-reaching, but more understandable, objective. It sought to forbid discrimination against those who are, or were, in bankruptcy and, more generally, to prohibit governmental action that would undercut the "fresh start" that is bank-ruptcy's promise, see Grogan v. Garner, 498 U. S. 279, 286 (1991). Where that kind of government activity is at issue, the statute forbids revocation. But where that kind of activity is not at issue, there is no reason to apply the statute's prohibition.
The statute's title, its language, and its history all support this description of its purpose. The title says, "Protection against discriminatory treatment." 11 U. S. C. § 525(a). The statute's text, read as a whole, see Appendix, infra, strongly suggests that bankruptcy-related discrimination is the evil at which the statute aims. A phrase is sometimes best known by the statutory company it keeps. See, e. g., Gutierrez v. Ada, 528 U. S. 250, 255 (2000). And here the relevant phrase is immersed within language that describes a host of acts, including discharges from employment and refusals to hire, and forbids them only where done solely for bankruptcy-related reasons, i. e., a person's being a bank-
313
Page: Index Previous 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007