Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 428.0

529US2

Unit: $U45

[09-26-01 10:03:41] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 344 (2000)

353

Opinion of the Court

regulations, “§§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) displace state and pri-
vate decisionmaking authority by establishing a federal-law
requirement that certain protective devices be installed or
federal approval obtained.”
Ibid. As a result, those regu-
lations “effectively set the terms under which railroads are
to participate in the improvement of crossings.”

Ibid.

In Easterwood itself, we ultimately concluded that the
plaintiff ’s state tort claim was not pre-empted.
Ibid. As
here, the plaintiff brought a wrongful death action alleging
that the railroad had not maintained adequate warning de-
vices at a particular grade crossing.
Id., at 661. We held
that §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) were not applicable because the
warning devices for which federal funds had been obtained
were never actually installed at the crossing where the acci-
dent occurred.
Id., at 671–673. Nonetheless, we made
clear that, when they do apply, §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) “cover
the subject matter of state law which, like the tort law on
which respondent relies, seeks to impose an independent
duty on a railroad to identify and/or repair dangerous cross-
ings.”
Id., at 671. The sole question in this case, then, is
whether §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) “are applicable” to all warn-
ing devices actually installed with federal funds.

We believe that Easterwood answers this question as
well. As an original matter, one could plausibly read
§§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) as being purely deﬁnitional, establish-
ing a standard for the adequacy of federally funded warning
devices but not requiring that all such devices meet that
standard. Easterwood rejected this approach, however, and
held that the requirements spelled out in (b)(3) and (4) are
mandatory for all warning devices installed with federal
funds.
“[F]or projects that involve grade crossings . . . in
which ‘Federal-aid funds participate in the installation of the
[warning] devices,’ regulations specify warning devices that
must be installed.”
Id., at 666 (emphasis added). Once it
is accepted that the regulations are not merely deﬁnitional,
their scope is plain: They apply to “any project where