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Extracted Text (OCR)
2 JAM v. INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORP.
BREYER, J., dissenting
was when the statute was written? Or is their reference
to that subject matter “dynamic,” changing in scope as the
subject matter changes over time? It is hardly surprising,
given the thousands of different statutes containing an
untold number of different words, that there is no single,
universally applicable answer to this question.
Fairly recent cases from this Court make that clear.
Compare New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, 586 U.S. __, _
(2019) (slip op., at 7) (adopting the interpretation of “‘con-
tracts of employment’” that prevailed at the time of the
statute’s adoption in 1925); Wisconsin Central Ltd. v.
United States, 585 U.S. __, ___ (2018) (slip op., at 2)
(adopting the meaning of “‘money’” that prevailed at the
time of the statute’s enactment in 1937); Carcieri v. Sala-
zar, 555 U.S. 379, 388 (2009) (interpreting the statutory
phrase “‘now under Federal jurisdiction’” to cover only
those tribes that were under federal jurisdiction at the
time of the statute’s adoption in 1934); and Republic of
Argentina v. Weltover, Inc., 504 U.S. 607, 612-613 (1992)
(adopting the meaning of “‘commercial’” that was “at-
tached to that term under the restrictive theory” when the
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act was enacted in 1976),
with Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, 576 U.S. __,
___ (2015) (slip op., at 14) (oting that the words “‘re-
straint of trade’” in the Sherman Act have been interpreted
dynamically); West v. Gibson, 527 U.S. 212, 218 (999)
(interpreting the term “‘appropriate’” in Title VII’s reme-
dies provision dynamically); and Allied-Bruce Terminix
Cos. v. Dobson, 518 U.S. 265, 275-276 (1995) Gnterpret-
ing the term “‘involving commerce’” in the Federal Arbi-
tration Act dynamically).
The Court, like petitioners, believes that the language of
the statute itself helps significantly to answer the stat-
ic/dynamic question. See ante, at 7-9. I doubt that the
language itself helps in this case. Petitioners point to the
words “as is” in the phrase that grants the international
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