533US2 Unit: $U87 [10-21-02 18:35:10] PAGES PGT: OPIN Cite as: 533 U. S. 678 (2001) 707 Kennedy, J., dissenting guage or structure of the INA and in fact contradicts and defeats the purpose set forth in the express terms of the statutory text. The Court, it is submitted, misunderstands the principle of constitutional avoidance which it seeks to invoke. The majority gives a brief bow to the rule that courts must respect the intention of Congress, ante, at 696, but then waltzes away from any analysis of the language, structure, or purpose of the statute. Its analysis is not consistent with our precedents explaining the limits of the constitutional doubt rule. The rule allows courts to choose among constructions which are “fairly possible,” Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 62 (1932), not to “ ‘press statutory construction to the point of disingenuous evasion even to avoid a constitutional question,’ ” Salinas v. United States, 522 U. S. 52, 60 (1997) (quoting Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U. S. 44, 57, n. 9 (1996)). Were a court to find two interpretations of equal plausibility, it should choose the construction that avoids confronting a constitutional question. The majority’s reading of the statutory authorization to “detai[n] beyond the removal period,” however, is not plausible. An interpretation which defeats the stated congressional purpose does not suffice to invoke the constitutional doubt rule, for it is “plainly contrary to the intent of Congress.” United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc., 513 U. S. 64, 78 (1994). The majority announces it will reject the Government’s argument “that the statute means what it literally says,” ante, at 689, but then declines to offer any other acceptable textual interpretation. The majority does not demonstrate an ambiguity in the delegation of the detention power to the Attorney General. It simply amends the statute to impose a time limit tied to the progress of negotiations to effect the aliens’ removal. The statute cannot be so construed. The requirement the majority reads into the law simply bears no relation to the text; and in fact it defeats the statutory purpose and design.