Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-476_dbfi.pdf
Page Number: 27.0

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

23 

Opinion of the Court 

___–___ (2017) (slip op., at 10–11).  And if we look beyond 
the  phrasing  employed  in  the  Airline  Deregulation  Act’s
preemption  provision,  it  is  clear  that  this  provision  oper­
ates just like any other federal law with preemptive effect. 
It  confers  on  private  entities  (i.e.,  covered  carriers)  a  fed­
eral  right  to  engage  in  certain  conduct  subject  only  to
certain (federal) constraints.

“Field  preemption”  operates  in  the  same  way.  Field 
preemption  occurs  when  federal  law  occupies  a  “field”  of
regulation “so comprehensively that it has left no room for 
supplementary  state  legislation.”  R. J.  Reynolds  Tobacco 
Co.  v.  Durham  County,  479  U. S.  130,  140  (1986).    In 
describing  field  preemption,  we  have  sometimes  used  the
same  sort  of  shorthand  employed  by  Congress  in  express
preemption  provisions.  See,  e.g.,  Oneok,  Inc.  v.  Learjet, 
Inc.,  575  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2015)  (slip  op.,  at  2)  (“Congress
has forbidden the State to take action in the field that the 
federal  statute  pre-empts”).  But  in  substance,  field 
preemption  does  not  involve  congressional  commands  to 
the States.  Instead, like all other forms of preemption, it
concerns  a  clash  between  a  constitutional  exercise  of 
Congress’s legislative power and conflicting state law.  See 
Crosby  v.  National  Foreign  Trade  Council,  530  U. S.  363, 
372, n. 6 (2000). 

The  Court’s  decision  in  Arizona  v.  United  States,  567 
U. S.  387  (2012),  shows  how  this  works.    Noting  that 
federal statutes “provide a full set of standards governing 
alien registration,” we concluded that these laws “reflect[ ] 
a  congressional  decision  to  foreclose  any  state  regulation 
in the area, even if it is parallel to federal standards.”  Id., 
at  401.  What  this  means  is  that  the  federal  registration
provisions not only impose federal registration obligations
on aliens but also confer a federal right to be free from any 
other registration requirements.

In  sum,  regardless  of  the  language  sometimes  used  by 
Congress  and  this  Court,  every  form  of  preemption  is