Trump v. Cook · ¶140

To justify its holding, the Court relies on the interpretive principle that common-law terms bear their common-law meanings. When “Congress borrows terms of art in which are accumulated the legal tradition and meaning of centuries of practice,” those terms of art take on their common- law meanings rather than their ordinary ones. Sekhar v. United States, 570 U. S. 729, 733 (2013) (internal quotations omitted); see ante, at 17. The term of art that the Court posits “carried with it a settled interpretation at common law,” ante, at 18, is the Federal Reserve Act’s statutory text providing that “each member shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.” 12 U. S. C. §242. According to the Court, by providing for a “term of years limited only by removal ‘for cause,’” this statutory text is…

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