The debates about the permissibility (or necessity) of recourse to legislative intent when a statute is unclear should not be confused with arguments about the purpose of a statute. It is legislators (or their equivalents) who have intentions, but statutes can have purposes, and it is often possible to determine the purpose of a statute from the words of the statute themselves. Sometimes, of course, the statute will say what its purpose is, a phenomenon described (and praised) by Karl Llewellyn as a singing reason, his term for a statute that not only has a purpose but that also announces it loud and clear.

Unknown, Frederick Schauer - Thinkin…, loc. 293