Opinion ID: 685201
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 11 Upon the Court's request at oral argument, each side briefed the issue of whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction to decide the case. Based on Lawrence County v. Lead-Deadwood Sch. Dist., 469 U.S. 256, 259 n. 6, 105 S.Ct. 695, 697 n. 6, 83 L.Ed.2d 635 (1985) and Shaw v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85, 96 n. 14, 103 S.Ct. 2890, 2899 n. 14, 77 L.Ed.2d 490 (1983), we find subject matter jurisdiction. The United States Supreme Court specified in Shaw that: 12 The Court's decision today in Franchise Tax Board v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, ante, [463 U.S.] p. 1, [103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420] (1983) does not call into question the lower courts' jurisdiction to decide these cases. Franchise Tax Board was an action seeking a declaration that state laws were not pre-empted by ERISA. Here, in contrast, companies subject to ERISA regulation seek injunctions against enforcement of state laws they claim are pre-empted by ERISA, as well as declarations that those laws are pre-empted. 13 It is beyond dispute that federal courts have jurisdiction over suits to enjoin state officials from interfering with federal rights. See Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 160-162 [28 S.Ct. 441, 454-55, 52 L.Ed. 714] (1908). A plaintiff who seeks injunctive relief from state regulation, on the ground that such regulation is pre-empted by a federal statute which, by virtue of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, must prevail, thus presents a federal question which the federal courts have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331 to resolve. 14 Id. at 96, n. 14, 103 S.Ct. at 2899, n. 14. 15 In accord with Supreme Court case law, we hold that a federal court has federal question jurisdiction to decide a claim against a state officer or agency alleging that a federal statute preempts a state statute under the Supremacy Clause and that the state statute cannot be enforced. This Court has appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291.