Opinion ID: 2139392
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Preemption Doctrine

Text: The preemption doctrine seeks to accommodate the interest of uniform, national regulation on the one hand, and the preservation of federalism on the other. Thus, the fact that Congress has entered a field of regulation does not necessarily preclude all state action in the area. As the United States Supreme Court recently noted: Preemption of state law by federal statute or regulation is not favored `in the absence of pervasive reasons  either that the nature of the regulated subject matter permits no other conclusion, or that the Congress has unmistakably so ordained.' Chicago & North Western Transportation Co. v. Kalo Brick & Tile Co., 450 U.S. 311, 317, 101 S.Ct. 1124, 1130, 67 L.Ed.2d 258 (1981) (quoting Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 142-43, 83 S.Ct. 1210, 1217, 10 L.Ed.2d 248 (1963)). See also, Wardair Canada, Inc. v. Florida Department of Revenue, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 106 S.Ct. 2369, 2370, 91 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986) (state law is not preempted whenever there is any federal regulation of an activity or industry or area of law). One authoritative text states: Federal law is generally interstitial in its nature. It rarely occupies a legal field completely, totally excluding all participation by the legal systems of the states. This was plainly true in the beginning when the federal legislative product (including the Constitution) was extremely small. It is significantly true today, despite the volume of Congressional enactments, and even within areas where Congress has been very active. Federal legislation, on the whole, has been conceived and drafted on an ad hoc basis to accomplish limited objectives. It builds upon legal relationships established by the states, altering or supplanting them only so far as necessary for the special purpose. Congress acts, in short, against the background of the total corpus juris of the states in much the way that a state legislature acts against the background of the common law, assumed to govern unless changed by legislation. P. Bator, D. Shapiro, P. Mishkin & H. Wechsler, Hart & Wechsler's The Federal Courts and the Federal System, 470-71 (2d ed. 1973). See Richards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 7, 82 S.Ct. 585, 589, 7 L.Ed.2d 492 (1962); Burks v. Lasker, 441 U.S. 471, 478, 99 S.Ct. 1831, 1837, 60 L.Ed.2d 404 (1979). Against this theoretical backdrop, the United States Supreme Court has recognized three distinct kinds of cases in which the doctrine applies to preempt state law. The first arises when Congress explicitly states that the federal scheme preempts any state action in the field. See Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U.S. 519, 525, 97 S.Ct. 1305, 1309, 51 L.Ed.2d 604 (1977). This instance, however, is rare, for Congress seldom expressly precludes all state law in a given regulatory field. The second case, in which Congress implicitly preempts state law, is somewhat more common. In such a case, preemption is inferred from either the extent of the federal involvement or the scope of the federal interest. See Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association v. De la Cuesta, 458 U.S. 141, 153, 102 S.Ct. 3014, 3022, 73 L.Ed.2d 664 (1982); Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218, 230, 67 S.Ct. 1146, 1152, 91 L.Ed. 1447 (1947). Even where Congress has not, either explicitly or implicitly, displaced all state action in a specified field, the preemption doctrine will invalidate any state law that, in fact, conflicts with the federal law. This third case arises when compliance with both the federal and state law is a physical impossibility or when the state law is an obstacle to the accomplishment of the purposes of the federal scheme. See Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, 373 U.S. at 142-43, 83 S.Ct. at 1217; Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67, 61 S.Ct. 399, 404, 85 L.Ed. 581 (1941). As is evident from the case law, the question of preemption is primarily one of statutory construction. If no express preemptive language is evident in the federal statute or regulation, factors in the federal law that indicate an implicit preemption must be considered. If neither an express nor an implied preemptive effect is present, the nature of the state law or action must be examined to determine whether it conflicts with the federal scheme. Therefore, we must consider the two federal acts that Burlington Northern contends preempt Pikop's and Gulati's state-law claims.