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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 5', '§ 1331', '§ 1331', '§ 2', '§4401', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 4', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 1144', '§ 1715', '§ 301', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 1334', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 502', '§ 1336', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 4', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 1331', '§ 5']

CIPOLLONE, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF CIPOLLONE v. LIGGETT GROUP, INC., ET AL. 505 U.S. 504 - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
US Supreme Court Decisions - On-Line> Volume 505 > CIPOLLONE, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF CIPOLLONE v. LIGGETT GROUP, INC., ET AL. 505 U.S. 504
CIPOLLONE, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF CIPOLLONE v. LIGGETT GROUP, INC., ET AL. 505 U.S. 504
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JUSTICE STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II, III, and IV, concluding that § 5 of the 1965 Act did not pre-cralaw
(b) Insofar as claims under either of petitioner's failure-to-warn theories-i. e., that respondents were negligent in the manner that they tested, researched, sold, promoted, and advertised their cigarettes, and that they failed to provide adequate warnings of smoking's consequences-require a showing that respondents' post-1969 advertising orcralaw
JUSTICE SCALIA, joined by JUSTICE THOMAS, concluded that all of petitioner's common-law claims are pre-empted by the 1969 Act under ordinary principles of statutory construction, and therefore concurred in the judgment that certain of his post-1969 failure-to-warn claimscralaw
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Association of National Advertisers, Inc., by Burt Neuborne and Gilbert H. Weil; for the National Association of Manufacturers by Diane L. Zimmerman, Jan S. Amundson, and Quentin Riegel; and for the Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., by Kenneth S. Geller and Mark I. Levy.cralaw
Liggett Group, Inc., 789 F.2d 181 (CA3 1986). Other federal courts have adopted a similar analysis. See Pennington v. Vistron Corp., 876 F.2d 414 (CA5 1989); Roysdon v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 849 F.2d 230 (CA6 1988); Stephen v. American Brands, Inc., 825 F.2d 312 (CAll 1987); Palmer v. Liggett Group, Inc., 825 F.2d 620 (CA1 1987).cralaw
3 Dewey v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 121 N. J. 69, 577 A. 2d 1239 (1990) (holding that the Cigarette Act does not pre-empt plaintiff's failure-towarn and misrepresentation claims); see also Forster v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 437 N. W. 2d 655 (Minn. 1989) (holding that plaintiffs' claim in strict liability for unsafe design was not pre-empted; claims for misrepresentation and breach of express warranty would also not be preempted).cralaw
"However, the existence of the present federally mandated warning does not prevent an individual from claiming that the risks of smoking are greater than the warning indicates, and that therefore such warning is inadequate. The court recognizes that it will be extremely difficult for a plaintiff to prove that the present warning is inadequate to inform of the dangers, whatever they may be. However, the difficulty of proof cannot preclude the opportunity to be heard, and affording that opportunity will not undermine the purposes of the Act." 593 F. Supp., at 1148.cralaw
"(2) commerce and the national economy may be (A) protected to the maximum extent consistent with this declared policy and (B) not impeded by diverse, nonuniform, and confusing cigarette labeling and advertising regulations with respect to any relationship between smoking and health." 15 U. S. C. § 1331 (1982 ed.).cralaw
6We are not presented with any question concerning these claims.cralaw
7See, e. g., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 56 F. T. C. 956 (1960); Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co., 55 F. T. C. 354 (1958); Philip Morris & Co., Ltd., 51 F. T. C. 857 (1955); R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 48 F. T. C. 682 (1952); London Tobacco Co., 36 F. T. C. 282 (1943).cralaw
10 See n. 5, supra.cralaw
11 For example, the California State Senate passed a total ban on both print and electronic cigarette advertisements. "California Senate Votes Ban On Cigarette Advertising," Washington Post, June 26, 1969, p. A9. 12pub. L. 91-222, 84 Stat. 87, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §§ 1331-1340.cralaw
13 In its express pre-emption analysis, the court did not distinguish between the pre-emption provisions of the 1965 and 1969 Acts; it relied solely on the latter, apparently believing that the 1969 provision was at least ascralaw
broad as the 1965 provision. The court's ultimate ruling that petitioner's claims were impliedly pre-empted effective January 1, 1966, reflects the fact that the 1969 Act did not alter the statement of purpose in § 2, which was critical to the court's implied pre-emption analysis.cralaw
14pub. L. 99-252, 100 Stat. 30, as codified, 15 U. S. C. §§4401-4408.cralaw
16JU8TICE SCALIA takes issue with our narrow reading of the phrase "No statement." His criticism, however, relies solely on an interpretation of those two words, artificially severed from both textual and legislative context. As demonstrated above, the phrase "No statement" in § 5(b) refers to the similar phrase in § 5(a), which refers in turn to § 4, which itself sets forth a particular statement. This context, combined with the regulatory setting in which Congress acted, establishes that a narrow reading of the phrase "No statement" is appropriate.cralaw
18 See Brief for Petitioner 23-24; Brief for Respondents 21-23.cralaw
20 Brief for Petitioner 20.cralaw
Petitioner's second argument for excluding common-law rules from the reach of § 5(b) hinges on the phrase "imposed under State law." This argument fails as well. At least since Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64 (1938), we have recognized the phrase "state law" to include common law as well as statutes and regulations. Indeed just last Term, the Court stated that the phrase" 'all other law, including State and municipal law'" "does not admit of [a] distinction ... between positive enactments and common-law rules of liability." Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U. S. 117, 128 (1991). Although the presumption against pre-emption might give good reason to construe the phrase "state law" in a pre-emption provision more narrowly than an identical phrase in another context, in this case such a construction is not appropriate. As explained above, thecralaw
22 Petitioner makes much of the fact that Congress did not expressly include common law within § 5's pre-emptive reach, as it has in other statutes. See, e. g., 29 U. S. C. § 1144(c)(1); 12 U. S. C. § 1715z-17(d). Respondents make much of the fact that Congress did not include a saving clause preserving common-law claims, again, as it has in other statutes. See, e. g., 17 U. S. C. § 301. Under our analysis of § 5, these omissions make perfect sense: Congress was neither pre-empting nor saving common lawcralaw
as a whole-it was simply pre-empting particular common-law claims, while saving others.cralaw
23 Thus it is that express warranty claims are said to sound in contract rather than in tort. Compare Black's Law Dictionary 1489 (6th ed. 1990) (defining "tort": "There must always be a violation of some duty ... andcralaw
24JUSTICE SCALIA contends that because the general duty to honor express warranties arises under state law, every express warranty obligation is a "requirement ... imposed under State law," and that, therefore, the Act pre-empts petitioner's express warranty claim. JUSTICE SCALIA might be correct if the Act pre-empted "liability" imposed under state law (as he suggests, post, at 551); but instead the Act expressly pre-empts only a "requirement or prohibition" imposed under state law. That a "contract has no legal force apart from the [state] law that acknowledges its binding character," Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U. S. 117, 130 (1991), does not mean that every contractual provision is "imposed under State law." To the contrary, common understanding dictates that a contractual requirement, although only enforceable under state law, is not "imposed" by the State, but rather is "imposed" by the contracting party upon itself.cralaw
Longstanding regulations of the Food and Drug Administration express a similar understanding of the relationship between required warnings and advertising that "negates or disclaims" those warnings: "A hazardous substance shall not be deemed to have met [federal labeling] requirements ifcralaw
25 The District Court stated that this claim "consists of the followingelements: 1) a material misrepresentation of ... fact [by false statement or concealment]; 2) knowledge of the falsity ... ; 3) intent that the misrepresentation be relied upon; 4) justifiable reliance ... ; 5) resultant damage." 683 F. Supp. 1487, 1499 (NJ 1988).cralaw
27Both JUSTICE BLACKMUN and JUSTICE SCALIA challenge the level of generality employed in our analysis. JUSTICE BLACKMUN contends that, as a matter of consistency, we should construe failure-to-warn claims notcralaw
"Evidence presented by [petitioner], particularly that contained in the documents of [respondents] themselves, indicates ... that the industry of which these [respondents] were and are a part entered into a sophisticated conspiracy. The conspiracy was organized to refute, undermine, and neutralize information coming from the scientific and medical community .... " 683 F. Supp., at 1490.cralaw
I agree with the Court's exposition, in Part III of its opinion, of the underlying principles of pre-emption law, and in particular with its recognition that the pre-emptive scope of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (1965 Act or Act) and the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act ofcralaw
I further agree with the Court that we cannot find the state common-law damages claims at issue in this case preempted by federal law in the absence of clear and unambiguous evidence that Congress intended that result. See ante, at 516. The Court describes this reluctance to infer preemption in ambiguous cases as a "presumption against the pre-emption of state police power regulations." Ante, at 518. Although many of the cases in which the Court has invoked such a presumption against displacement of state law have involved implied pre-emption, see, e. g., Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U. S. 132, 146152 (1963); Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 236-237 (1947), this Court often speaks in general terms without reference to the nature of the pre-emption at issue in the given statutory scheme. See, e. g., Maryland v. Loui-cralaw
1 The Court construes congressional inroads on state power narrowly in other contexts, as well. For example, the Court repeatedly has held that, in order to waive a State's sovereign immunity from suit in federal court, Congress must make its intention "unmistakably clear in the language of the statute." Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon, 473 U. S. 234, 242 (1985); Dellmuth v. Muth, 491 U. S. 223, 228 (1989).cralaw
My agreement with the Court ceases at this point. Given the Court's proper analytical focus on the scope of the express pre-emption provisions at issue here and its acknowledgment that the 1965 Act does not pre-empt state commonlaw damages claims, I find the plurality's conclusion that the 1969 Act pre-empts at least some common-law damages claims little short of baffling. In my view, the modified language of § 5(b), 15 U. S. C. § 1334(b) ("No requirement or prohibition based on smoking and health shall be imposed under State law with respect to the advertising or promotion of any cigarettes the packages of which are labeled in conformity with the provisions of this Act"), no more "clearly" or "manifestly" exhibits an intent to pre-empt state commonlaw damages actions than did the language of its predecessor in the 1965 Act. Nonetheless, the plurality reaches a different conclusion, and its reasoning warrants scrutiny.cralaw
Although the plurality flatly states that the phrase "no requirement or prohibition" "sweeps broadly" and "easily encompass[es] obligations that take the form of common-law rules," ante, at 521, those words are in reality far from unambiguous and cannot be said clearly to evidence a congressional mandate to pre-empt state common-law damages actions. The dictionary definitions of these terms suggest, ifcralaw
The effect of tort law on a manufacturer's behavior is necessarily indirect. Although an award of damages by its very nature attaches additional consequences to the manufacturer's continued unlawful conduct, no particular course of action (e. g., the adoption of a new warning label) is required. A manufacturer found liable on, for example, a failure-towarn claim may respond in a number of ways. It may decide to accept damages awards as a cost of doing business and not alter its behavior in any way. See Goodyear Atomic Corp. v. Miller, 486 U. S. 174, 185-186 (1988) (corporation "may choose to disregard [state] safety regulations and simply pay an additional" damages award if an employee is injured as a result of a safety violation). Or, by contrast, it may choose to avoid future awards by dispensing warnings through a variety of alternative mechanisms, such as package inserts, public service advertisements, or general educational programs. The level of choice that a defendant retains in shaping its own behavior distinguishes the indirect regulatory effect of the common law from positive enact-cralaw
3 The Court has explained that Garmon, in which a state common-law damages award was found to be pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Act, involved a special "presumption of federal pre-emption" relating to the primary jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. See Brown v. Hotel Employees, 468 U. S. 491, 502 (1984); English v. General Electric Co., 496 U. S. 72, 86-87, n. 8 (1990).cralaw
4 The Court in Silkwood declined to find state punitive damages awards pre-empted by federal nuclear safety laws, explaining: "It may be that the award of damages based on the state law of negligence or strict liability is regulatory in the sense that a nuclear plant will be threatened with damages liability if it does not conform to state standards, but that regulatory consequence was something that Congress was quite willing to accept." 464 U. S., at 256. Although the Court has noted that the decision in Silkwood was based in "substantial part" on affirmative evidence in the legislative history suggesting that Congress did not intend to include common-law damages remedies within the pre-empted field, see English v. General Electric Co., 496 U. S. 72, 86 (1990), Silkwood's discussion of the regulatory effects of the common law is instructive and has been relied on in subsequent cases. See, e. g., Goodyear, 486 U. S., at 186.cralaw
Viewing the revisions to § 5(b) as generally nonsubstantive in nature makes sense. By replacing the word "statement" with the slightly broader term, "requirement," and adding the word "prohibition" to ensure that a State could not do through negative mandate (e. g., banning all cigarette advertising) that which it already was forbidden to do through positive mandate (e. g., mandating particular cautionary statements), Congress sought to "clarif[y]" the existing pre-cralaw
5 In the one reported case construing the scope of pre-emption under the 1965 Act, Banzhaf v. FCC--a case of which Congress was aware, see S. Rep., at 7--the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit used the term "affirmative requirements" to describe § 5(b)'s ban on "statement[s]." 132 U. S. App. D. C. 14, 22, 405 F.2d 1082, 1090 (1968), cert. denied sub nom. Tobacco Institute, Inc. v. FCC, 396 U. S. 842 (1969). It is but a small step from "affirmative requirement" to the converse, "negative requirement" ("prohibition"), and, from there, to the single explanatory phrase, "requirement or prohibition."cralaw
Unlike other federal statutes where Congress has eased the bite of pre-emption by establishing "comprehensive" civil enforcement schemes, see, e. g., Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon, 498 U. S. 133, 144-145 (1990) (discussing § 502(a) of ERISA), the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act is barren of alternative remedies. The Act merely empowers the Federal Trade Commission to regulate unfair or deceptive advertising practices (15 U. S. C. § 1336), establishes minimalcralaw
6 Every Court of Appeals to consider the question, including the Third Circuit in an earlier opinion in this case, similarly has concluded that state common-law damages claims are not expressly pre-empted under the 1969 Act. See, e. g., Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 789 F.2d 181, 185-186 (CA3 1986), cert. denied, 479 U. S. 1043 (1987); Pennington v. Vistron Corp., 876 F.2d 414, 418 (CA5 1989); Roysdon v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 849 F.2d 230, 234 (CA6 1988); Palmer v. Liggett Group, Inc., 825 F.2d 620, 625 (CA1 1987). See also Dewey v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 121 N. J. 69, 85, 577 A. 2d 1239, 1247 (1990); Forster v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 437 N. W. 2d 655, 658 (Minn. 1989).cralaw
In short, I can perceive no principled basis for many of the plurality's asserted distinctions among the common-law claims, and I cannot believe that Congress intended to create such a hodgepodge of allowed and disallowed claims when it amended the pre-emption provision in 1970. Although the plurality acknowledges that § 5(b) fails to "indicate that any familiar subdivision of common-law claims is or is not preempted," ante, at 523, it ignores the simplest and most obvious explanation for the statutory silence: that Congress never intended to displace state common-law damages claims, much less to cull through them in the manner the plurality does today. I can only speculate as to the difficultycralaw
Today's decision announces what, on its face, is an extraordinary and unprecedented principle of federal statutory construction: that express pre-emption provisions must be construed narrowly, "in light of the presumption against the pre-emption of state police power regulations." Ante, at 518. The life span of this new rule may have been blessedly brief, inasmuch as the opinion that gives it birth in Part I proceeds to ignore it in Part V, by adjudging at least some of the common-law tort claims at issue here pre-empted. In my view, there is no merit to this newly crafted doctrine of narrow construction. Under the Supremacy Clause, U. S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2, our job is to interpret Congress's decrees of pre-emption neither narrowly nor broadly, but in accordance with their apparent meaning. If we did that job in the present case, we would find, under the 1965 Act, preemption of petitioner's failure-to-warn claims; and under the 1969 Act, we would find pre-emption of petitioner's claims complete.cralaw
The Court goes beyond these traditional principles, however, to announce two new ones. First, it says that express pre-emption provisions must be given the narrowest possible construction. This is in its view the consequence of our oft-repeated assumption that, absent convincing evidence of statutory intent to pre-empt, "'the historic police powers of the States [are] not to be superseded,'" see ante, at 516. But it seems to me that assumption dissolves once there is conclusive evidence of intent to pre-empt in the express words of the statute itself, and the only remaining question is what the scope of that pre-emption is meant to be. Thereupon, I think, our responsibility is to apply to the text ordinary principles of statutory construction.cralaw
In light of our willingness to find pre-emption in the absence of any explicit statement of pre-emptive intent, the notion that such explicit statements, where they exist, are subject to a "plain-statement" rule is more than somewhat odd. To be sure, our jurisprudence abounds with rules of "plain statement," "clear statement," and "narrow construction" designed variously to ensure that, absent unambiguous evidence of Congress's intent, extraordinary constitutional powers are not invoked, or important constitutional protections eliminated, or seemingly inequitable doctrines applied. See, e. g., United States v. Mitchell, 445 U. S. 535, 538 (1980) (waivers of federal sovereign immunity must be "unequivocally expressed"); Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U. S. 58, 65 (1989) (clear statement required to compel States to entertain damages suits against themselves in statecralaw
The results seem odder still when one takes into account the second new rule that the Court announces: "When Congress has considered the issue of pre-emption and has included in the enacted legislation a provision explicitly addressing that issue, ... we need only identify the domain expressly pre-empted by [that provision]." Ante, at 517. Once there is an express pre-emption provision, in other words, all doctrines of implied pre-emption are eliminated. This proposition may be correct insofar as implied "field" pre-emption is concerned: The existence of an express preemption provision tends to contradict any inference that Congress intended to occupy a field broader than the statute's express language defines. However, with regard to implied "conflict" pre-emption-i. e., where state regulation actually conflicts with federal law, or where state regulation "stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution" of Congress's purposes, Hines, supra, at 67-the Court's second new rule works mischief. If taken seriously, it would mean, for example, that if a federal consumer protection law provided that no state agency or court shall assert jurisdiction under state law over any workplace safety issue with respect to which a federal standard is in effect, then a state agency operating under a law dealing with a subject other than workplace safety (e. g., consumer protection) could impose requirements entirely contrary to federallaw-forbidding, for example, the use of certain safety equipment that federal law requires. To my knowledge, we have never expressed such a rule before, and our prior cases are inconsist-cralaw
With much of what the plurality says in Part V of its opinion I agree-that "the language of the [1969] Act plainly reaches beyond [positive] enactments," ante, at 521; that the general tort-law duties petitioner invokes against the cigarette companies can, as a general matter, impose "requirementes] or prohibition[s]" within the meaning of § 5(b) of thecralaw
1 The plurality is joined by JUSTICES BLACKMUN, KENNEDY, and SouTER in its analysis of the 1965 Act.cralaw
2 The Court apparently thinks that because § 4 of the Act, imposing the federal package-labeling requirement, "itself sets forth a particular statement," ante, at 519, n. 16, § 5(b), the advertising pre-emption provision must be read to proscribe only those state laws that compel the use of particular statements in advertising. Besides being a complete non sequitur, this reasoning proves too much: The similar prescription of a particular warning in the 1969 Act would likewise require us to confine the pre-emptive scope of that later statute to specific, prescriptive "requirementEs] or prohibition[s]" (which, I presume, would not include tort-law obligations to warn consumers about product dangers). And under both the 1965 and 1969 versions of the Act, the package-labeling pre-emption provision of § 5( a), no less than the advertising pre-emption provision of § 5(b), would have to be limited to the prescription of particular language, leaving the States free to impose general health-labeling requirements. These results are obviously contrary to the Act's stated purposes.cralaw
The plurality cites no authority for its curious view, which is reason enough to doubt it. In addition, however, we rejected this very argument last Term in Norfolk & Westerncralaw
This analysis is suspect, to begin with, because the plurality is unwilling to apply it consistently. As JUSTICE BLACKMUN cogently explains, see ante, at 543 (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part), if New Jersey's common-law duty to avoid false statements of material fact-as applied to the cigarette companies' behavior-is not "based on smoking and health," the same must be said of New Jersey's common-law duty to warn about a product's dangers. Each duty transcends the relationship between the cigarette com-cralaw
Once one is forced to select a consistent methodology for evaluating whether a given legal duty is "based on smoking and health," it becomes obvious that the methodology must focus not upon the ultimate source of the duty (e. g., the common law) but upon its proximate application. Use of the "ultimate source" approach (i. e., a legal duty is not "based on smoking and health" unless the law from which it derives is directed only to smoking and health) would gut the statute, inviting the very "diverse, nonuniform, and confusing cigarette ... advertising regulations" Congress sought to avoid. 15 U. S. C. § 1331(2). And the problem is not simply the common law: Requirements could be imposed by state executive agencies as well, so long as they were operating under a general statute authorizing their supervision of "commercial advertising" or "unfair trade practices." Newcralaw
Finally, there is an additional flaw in the plurality's opinion, a systemic one that infects even its otherwise correct disposition of petitioner's post-1969 failure-to-warn claims. The opinion states that, since § 5(b) proscribes only "requirementes] or prohibition[s] ... 'with respect to ... advertising or promotion,'" state-law claims premised on the failure to warn consumers "through channels of communication other than advertising or promotion" are not covered. Ante, at 528 (emphasis added); see ante, at 524. This preserves not only the (somewhat fanciful) claims based on duties having no relation to the advertising and promotion (one could imagine a law requiring manufacturers to disclose the health hazards of their products to a state public-health agency), but also claims based on duties that can be complied with by taking action either within the advertising and promotional realm or elsewhere. Thus, if-as appears to be the case in New Jersey-a State's common law requires manufacturers to advise consumers of their products' dangers, but the law is indifferent as to how that requirement is met (i. e., through "advertising or promotion" or otherwise), the plurality would apparently be unprepared to find pre-emption as longcralaw
Like JUSTICE BLACKMUN, "I can only speculate as to the difficulty lower courts will encounter in attempting to implement [today's] decision." Ante, at 543-544 (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part). Must express pre-emption provisions really be given their narrowest reasonable construction (as the Court says in Part III), or need they not (as the plurality does in Part V)? Are courts to ignore all doctrines of implied pre-emption whenever the statute at issue contains an express pre-emption provision, as the Court says today, or are they to continue to apply them, as we have in the past? For pre-emption purposes,cralaw