259 STEWART, J., dissenting The amendment was not highlighted, but it is unlikely that it escaped notice. Later the same year, the relevant Committees of both the House and the Senate adopted the language, S. Rep. No. 1919, supra, at 19; H. R. Rep. No. 2499, 87th Cong., 2d Sess., 9 (1962), and the text was before Congress for the following two years. It is therefore very difficult to conclude that the addition was inadvertent or unnoticed.' But, in any case, nothing in the legislative history demonstrates congressional intent different from that reflected in the words of the statute. ""The most that can be said for the legislative history is that it is on the whole inconclusive. Certainly, it contains nothing that requires the court to reject the construction which the statu • The Court makes much of the fact that a statistical table comparing revenues actually received by counties with those estimated to result from the amendment showed no change in the amounts from the Kenai Range, and if the amendment meant what a plain reading of it indicates, an increase should have been reflected. Ante, at 271. That straw of evidence scarcely compels the conclusion that the amendment does not mean what it says. It would hardly be surprising if the legislators overlooked a single disparity in a single entry in a lengthy exhibit. And it is noteworthy that the table the Court refers to appeared in the 1964 Reports only, while the addition of the word "minerals" to § 715s was proposed in 1962, when the comparable statistical table did not include any indication of the anticipated payments to counties from public land areas under the proposed amendment. See S. Rep. No. 1919, 87th Cong., 2d Sess., 11, nn. 1 and 2 (1962). 7 That Congress explained the addition of "[s]almonoid carcasses, see ante, at 271, n. 13, hardly supports the inference that Congress would also have explained the addition of the word "minerals." By the Court's strained logic, premised on the notion that "[t]he silence of Congress may provide a treacherous guide to its intent," ibid., Congress is put on notice that any time it explains one provision of a statute, no matter how trivial, it does so at its peril. For if it fails similarly to explain all provisions, no matter how important, a court would be free to strike those unexplained provisions as unintended. That, in my view, leads to far more "treacherous" results than those feared by today's Court. STEWART, J., dissenting 451 U.S. tory language clearly requires.' Ullman v. United States, 350 U. S. 422, 433. The Court today is bothered because the literal meaning of a statute altered prevailing law. But usually the very point of new legislation is to alter prevailing law. "Every act is made, either for the purpose of making a change in the law, or for the purpose of better declaring the law; and its operation is not to be impeded by the mere fact that it is inconsistent with some previous enactment." T. Sedgwick, The Interpretation and Construction of Statutory and Constitutional Law 104 (2d ed. 1874). Congress does not have the affirmative obligation to explain to this Court why it deems a particular enactment wise or necessary, or to demonstrate that it is aware of the consequences of its action. See Harrison v. PPG Industries, Inc., 446 U. S. 578, 592. And "[i]t This is not a case where the plain meaning of statutory language would lead to an absurd or futile result, see, e. g., Armstrong Paint & Varnish Works v. Nu-Enamel Corp., 305 U. S. 315, or to an unreasonable result at variance with the policy of the legislation as a whole. See, e. g., United States v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 310 U. S. 534. See also Shapiro v. United States, 335 U. S. 1, 31. The Court relies on the fact that the Department of the Interior ignored the 1964 amendment for a decade with respect to oil and gas revenues from the Kenai Range. Ante, at 272-273. But administrative errors are not self-validating. See SEC v. Sloan, 436 U. S. 103, 117-119; Adamo Wrecking Co. v. United States, 434 U. S. 275, 287-288, n. 5; Dixon v. United States, 381 U. S. 68, 78. Unauthorized payments from the federal Treasury are not immune from correction, and the United States can retrieve money mistakenly dispersed by its officials. United States v. Wurts, 303 U. S. 414, 415-416; Wisconsin Central R. Co. v. United States, 164 U. S. 190, 212. In any case, there is no indication that the administrative practice until 1975 was the result of considered evaluation of the 1964 amendments. Instead it appears that it was the inertial continuation of earlier practice. A much more reliable indication of the administrative construction of the 1964 amendment is the "detailed and comprehensive" re-evaluation by the Department in 1975, confirmed by the Comptroller General. Andrus v. Sierra Club, 442 U. S. 347, 358. See also NLRB v. Iron Workers, 434 U. S. 335, 351. 259 STEWART, J., dissenting is not a function of this Court to presume that 'Congress was unaware of what it accomplished.'" Albernaz v. United States, 450 U. S. 333, 342 (quoting U. S. Railroad Retirement Board v. Fritz, 449 U. S. 166, 179). Rather than join the Court in its speculative efforts to deal with the doctrine of implied repeal, I would rest decision of these cases upon an established rule of statutory construction: leges posteriores, priores contrarias abrogant. Sedgwick describes this rule with approval as follows: ""If two inconsistent acts be passed at different times, the last,' said the Master of the Rolls, 'is to be obeyed; and if obedience cannot be observed without derogating from the first, it is the first which must give way." Sedgwick, supra, at 104. See District of Columbia v. Hutton, 143 U. S. 18, 26-27; Henderson's Tobacco, 11 Wall. 652, 657; United States v. Tynen, 11 Wall. 88, 92. Observance of this rule also allows the Court to respect the most basic of all canons of statutory construction: that statutes mean what they plainly say.1 10 As Chief Justice Marshall said more than a century and a half ago: "[T]he intention of the legislature is to be collected from the words they employ. Where there is no ambiguity in the words there is no room for construction. The case must 10 Of course, if I am wrong, and Congress did not intend that oil revenues from reserved refuge lands be distributed according to the scheme of the 1964 Act, Congress is always free to revise the statute. It would be far more appropriate, given the constitutional allocation of lawmaking power to Congress and not to the courts, if this Court were to respect the plain meaning of the statute, and leave it to Congress to make any changes it thinks necessary. The Court's readiness to rewrite legislation contributes, I am afraid, to undue congressional willingness to leave it to the courts to do its redrafting. Indeed, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, when confronted with the dispute involved in these cases chose to "tak[e] no position as to whether disposition of mineral revenues should be made pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act or the Refuge Revenue Sharing Act." S. Rep. No. 95-1174, pp. 4, 8 (1978). See also ante, at 264-265, n. 8. be a strong one indeed, which would justify a court in departing from the plain meaning of words. . . in search of an intention which the words themselves did not suggest." United States v. Wiltberger, 5 Wheat. 76, 95–96. I respectfully dissent. Syllabus CALIFORNIA ET AL. V. SIERRA CLUB ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 79-1252. Argued January 21, 1981-Decided April 28, 1981* Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (Act) prohibits "[t]he creation of any obstruction not affirmatively authorized by Congress, to the navigable capacity of any of the waters of the United States." An environmental organization and two private citizens (hereafter respondents) brought an action in Federal District Court seeking to enjoin, as a violation of § 10, the construction and operation of water diversion facilities which are part of the California Water Project, a series of water storage and transportation facilities designed to transport water from northern to central and southern California. The District Court held, inter alia, that respondents could avail themselves of a "private cause of action" to enforce § 10, and the Court of Appeals agreed, concluding that the Act was designed for the especial benefit of private parties who may suffer "special injury" caused by unauthorized obstruction to a navigable waterway. Held: 1. No private action can be implied on behalf of those allegedly injured by a claimed violation of § 10. Pp. 292–298. (a) Section 10's language, which states no more than a general proscription of certain activities, does not indicate any intent by Congress to provide for private rights of action. Section 10 is the kind of general ban which carries with it no implication of an intent to confer rights on a particular class of persons. P. 294. (b) Nor is there anything in the legislative history suggesting that § 10 was created for the especial benefit of a particular class. On the contrary, the history suggests the view that the Act was designed to benefit the public at large by empowering the Federal Government to exercise its authority over interstate commerce with respect to obstructions on navigable rivers caused by bridges and similar structures. Pp. 294–296. 2. The question on the merits, raised by petitioner State of California, as to whether the Act requires permits for the state water allocation projects involved in these cases, will not be reached, as the above ruling *Together with No. 79-1502, Kern County Water Agency et al. v. Sierra Club et al., also on certiorari to the same court. |