FS Credit Opportunities Corp. v. Saba Capital Master Fund, Ltd. · ¶95

Courts’ traditional use of materials Congress generated while drafting and enacting statutes accords with the “natural” instincts of a judge attempting to “understand the context and purpose” of that law when the text is subject to more than one interpretation. Breyer, 65 S. Cal. L. Rev., at 848. But consulting the legislative record is not just informative. Doing this also serves a vital separation-of-powers function rooted in the structure of our democratic system. As the majority emphasizes from the get-go, “Congress, not the Judiciary, decides” the law. Ante, at 1; see also Brown v. United States, 8 Cranch 110, 128–129 (1814) (“[A]ll . . . questions of policy [are] proper for the consideration of a department which can modify it at will; not for the consideration of a department which can pursue only the law as it is written”). Using legislative history helps prevent judges who are…

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