Page:Türkiye Halk Bankasi A.Ş. v. United States.pdf/6

Rh any event Halkbank’s charged conduct fell within the FSIA’s exception for commercial activities.

We granted certiorari. 598 U. S. ___ (2022).

Halkbank first contends that the District Court lacks jurisdiction over this criminal prosecution.

Section 3231 of Title 18 provides: “The district courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all offenses against the laws of the United States.” Via its sweeping language, §3231 opens federal district courts to the full range of federal prosecutions for violations of federal criminal law. By its terms, §3231 plainly encompasses Halkbank’s alleged criminal offenses, which were “against the laws of the United States.”

Halkbank cannot and does not dispute that §3231’s text as written encompasses the offenses charged in the indictment. Halkbank nonetheless argues that the statute implicitly excludes foreign states and their instrumentalities. In support of that argument, Halkbank identifies certain civil and bankruptcy statutes that expressly refer to actions against foreign states and their instrumentalities. See 28 U. S. C. §§1330(a), 1603(a)–(b); 11 U. S. C. §§101(27), 106(a); Act of Mar. 3, 1875, ch. 137, §1, 18 Stat. 470, as amended, §3, 90 Stat. 2891. Because §3231 refers generically to “all” federal criminal offenses without specifically mentioning foreign states or their instrumentalities, Halkbank reasons that foreign states and their instrumentalities do not fall within §3231’s scope.

We decline to graft an atextual limitation onto §3231’s broad jurisdictional grant over “all offenses” simply because several unrelated provisions in the U. S. Code happen to expressly reference foreign states and instrumentalities. Those scattered references in distinct contexts do not shrink the textual scope of §3231, which operates “without