Opinion of the Court
10–11). So if Congress had reenacted the discharge exception for fraud without change, we would assume that it meant to incorporate Strang’s interpretation. Appling, 584 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 10–11); Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U. S. 575, 580 (1978).
But Congress went even further than mere reenactment. Thirteen years after Strang, when Congress next overhauled bankruptcy law, it deleted “of the bankrupt” from the discharge exception for fraud, which is the predecessor to the modern §523(a)(2)(A). Act of July 1, 1898, §17, 30 Stat. 550 (“A discharge in bankruptcy shall release a bankrupt from all of his provable debts, except such as … are judgments in actions for frauds, or obtaining property by false pretenses or false representations, or for willful and malicious injuries to the person or property of another”). By doing so, Congress cut from the statute the strongest textual hook counseling against the outcome in Strang. The unmistakable implication is that Congress embraced Strang’s holding—so we do too.
C
In a last-ditch effort to persuade us, Bartenwerfer invokes the “fresh start” policy of modern bankruptcy law. Precluding faultless debtors from discharging liabilities run up by their associates, she says, is inconsistent with that policy, so §523(a)(2)(A) cannot apply to her. A contrary holding would be a throwback to the harsh days when “debtors faced ‘perpetual bondage to their creditors,’ surviving on ‘a miserable pittance [and] dependent upon the bounty or forbearance of [their] creditors.’ ” Brief for Petitioner 16 (quoting 3 J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 5 (1833)). The same Congress that “champion[ed]” the fresh start could not also have shackled honest debtors with liability for frauds that they did not personally commit. Brief for Petitioner 37.
This argument earns credit for color but not much else.
