John Paul Stevens

“ Petitioner's principal claims are that the Magistrates Act does not allow a district court to assign felony voir dire to a magistrate even with the defendant's consent, and that in any event the consent here was ineffective because given orally by counsel and not in writing by the defendant. By definition, these claims can be advanced only by a litigant who will, if ordinary rules are applied, be deemed to have forfeited them: a defendant who objects will not be assigned to the magistrate at all. ”

“ By specifically authorizing magistrates to perform duties in civil and misdemeanor trials, and specifying the manner in which parties were to express their consent in those situations, the statute suggested absence of authority to preside over felony trials through some (unspecified) mode of consent. The canon of ejusdem generis keeps the "additional duties" clause from swallowing up the rest of the statute. See Gomez, supra, 490 U.S., at 872, 109 S.Ct., at 2245. ”

“ Otherwise, the doctrine of unconstitutional delegation of legislative power (which delegation cannot plausibly be compelled by one of the other Branches) is a dead letter, and our decisions in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. ”