United States v. William O. Steele, Cross-Appellee ( 1998 )

EDMONDSON, Circuit Judge,

concurring:

Today’s court relies heavily on what we see as the plain language of the pertinent statute. I agree with the opinion and with the result. But I point out that we do not have before us today a statute that was enacted long ago. When those much older statutes are being construed by modern courts, our response as modern readers to the words of the statute may not be what the words meant to the Congress speaking at a very different time; and the idea of plain meaning becomes far more complicated.