Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 939.0

529US3

Unit: $U62

[09-26-01 12:54:01] PAGES PGT: OPIN

864

GEIER v. AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO.

Opinion of the Court

Douglas N. Letter, Kathleen Moriarty Mueller, Nancy E.
McFadden, Paul M. Geier, and Frank Seales, Jr.*

Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case focuses on the 1984 version of a Federal Motor
Vehicle Safety Standard promulgated by the Department of
Transportation under the authority of the National Trafﬁc
and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, 80 Stat. 718, 15 U. S. C.
§ 1381 et seq. (1988 ed.). The standard, FMVSS 208, re-
quired auto manufacturers to equip some but not all of their

*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were ﬁled for the State of Mis-
souri et al. by Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Attorney General of Missouri,
James R. Layton, State Solicitor, Charles Hatﬁeld, and Barbara McDon-
nell, Chief Deputy Attorney General of Colorado, and by the Attorneys
General for their respective States as follows: Janet Napolitano of Ari-
zona, Bill Lockyer of California, M. Jane Brady of Delaware, Thomas J.
Miller of Iowa, Carla J. Stovall of Kansas, Joseph P. Mazurek of Montana,
Philip T. McLaughlin of New Hampshire, Eliot Spitzer of New York,
W. A. Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma, Hardy Myers of Oregon, D. Michael
Fisher of Pennsylvania, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, William
H. Sorrell of Vermont, and Christine O. Gregoire of Washington; for the
Association of Trial Lawyers of America by Jeffrey Robert White; for the
Attorneys Information Exchange Group by Larry E. Coben; for the Na-
tional Conference of State Legislatures et al. by Richard Ruda and James
I. Crowley; and for Robert B Leﬂar et al. by Mr. Leﬂar, pro se.

Briefs of amici curiae urging afﬁrmance were ﬁled for the Chamber of
Commerce of the United States by Theodore B. Olson, Theodore J. Bou-
trous, Jr., Thomas G. Hungar, and Robin S. Conrad; for the Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers et al. by Thomas W. Merrill, Gene C. Schaerr,
Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Richard A. Cordray; for the Blue Cross Blue
Shield Association by Anthony F. Shelley and Alan I. Horowitz; for the
Defense Research Institute by Kevin M. Reynolds, Robert L. Fanter,
Richard J. Kirschman, Lloyd H. Milliken, Jr., Randall R. Riggs, and T.
Joseph Wendt; for General Motors Corp. by David M. Heilbron and Leslie
G. Landau; for the Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., by Kenneth
S. Geller, Erika Z. Jones, and John J. Sullivan; and for the Washington
Legal Foundation by Lawrence S. Ebner, Daniel J. Popeo, and Richard
A. Samp.

David Overlock Stewart and Thomas M. Susman ﬁled a brief for the

Business Roundtable as amicus curiae.