454
Opinion of the Court
Rule 82—similarly states: "These rules shall not be construed to extend or limit the jurisdiction of the United States district courts . . . ." See 12 C. Wright, A. Miller, & R. Marcus, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3141, pp. 484-485 (2d ed. 1997) ("Rule 82 states [the] important principle" that "[t]he rules merely prescribe the method by which the jurisdiction granted the courts by Congress is to be exercised."); Schacht v. United States, 398 U. S. 58, 64 (1970) ("The procedural rules adopted by the Court for the orderly transaction of its business are not jurisdictional . . . ."). In short, the filing deadlines prescribed in Bankruptcy Rules 4004 and 9006(b)(3) are claim-processing rules that do not delineate what cases bankruptcy courts are competent to adjudicate.
This much is common ground. Kontrick does not contend in this Court that the timing rules in question affect the subject-matter jurisdiction of the bankruptcy courts. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 9 (acknowledging that "[t]his case does not deal with subject matter jurisdiction"); id., at 9-10 (explaining that counsel for Kontrick used the word "jurisdiction" "as a shorthand" to indicate a nonextendable time limit).
Courts, including this Court, it is true, have been less than meticulous in this regard; they have more than occasionally used the term "jurisdictional" to describe emphatic time prescriptions in rules of court. "Jurisdiction," the Court has aptly observed, "is a word of many, too many, meanings." Steel Co. v. Citizens for Better Environment, 523 U. S. 83, 90 (1998) (internal quotation marks omitted). For example, we have described Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(b), on time enlargement, and correspondingly, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 45(b), on extending time, as "mandatory and jurisdictional." United States v. Robinson, 361 U. S. 220, 228- 229 (1960). But see Carlisle v. United States, 517 U. S. 416, 419-433 (1996) (holding that, over the prosecutor's objection, a court may not grant a postverdict motion for a judgment of acquittal filed one day outside the time limit allowed by Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 29(c); this Court did not characterize
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