Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2008 12-15 App-Opn of Ussc - Altria
2008 12-15 App-Opn of Ussc - Altria
Syllabus
Syllabus
Syllabus
No. 07–562
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I
Respondents are Maine residents and longtime smokers
of Marlboro Lights and Cambridge Lights cigarettes,
which are manufactured by petitioners. Invoking the
diversity jurisdiction of the Federal District Court, re
spondents filed a complaint alleging that petitioners delib
erately deceived them about the true and harmful nature
of “light” cigarettes in violation of the MUTPA, Me. Rev.
Stat. Ann., Tit. 5, §207 (Supp. 2008).1 Respondents claim
that petitioners fraudulently marketed their cigarettes as
being “light” and containing “ ‘[l]owered [t]ar and
[n]icotine’ ” to convey to consumers that they deliver less
tar and nicotine and are therefore less harmful than regu
lar cigarettes. App. 28a–29a.
Respondents acknowledge that testing pursuant to the
Cambridge Filter Method2 indicates that tar and nicotine
yields of Marlboro Lights and Cambridge Lights are lower
than those of regular cigarettes. Id., at 30a. Respondents
allege, however, that petitioners have known at all rele
vant times that human smokers unconsciously engage in
compensatory behaviors not registered by Cambridge
Filter Method testing that negate the effect of the tar- and
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1 The MUTPA provides, as relevant, that “[u]nfair methods of compe
II
Article VI, cl. 2, of the Constitution provides that the
laws of the United States “shall be the supreme Law of the
Land; . . . any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any
state to the Contrary notwithstanding.” Consistent with
that command, we have long recognized that state laws
that conflict with federal law are “without effect.” Mary
land v. Louisiana, 451 U. S. 725, 746 (1981).
Our inquiry into the scope of a statute’s pre-emptive
effect is guided by the rule that “ ‘[t]he purpose of Congress
is the ultimate touchstone’ in every pre-emption case.”
Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr, 518 U. S. 470, 485 (1996) (quoting
Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 375 U. S. 96, 103 (1963)).
Congress may indicate pre-emptive intent through a
statute’s express language or through its structure and
purpose. See Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U. S. 519,
525 (1977). If a federal law contains an express pre
emption clause, it does not immediately end the inquiry
because the question of the substance and scope of Con
gress’ displacement of state law still remains. Pre
emptive intent may also be inferred if the scope of the
statute indicates that Congress intended federal law to
occupy the legislative field, or if there is an actual conflict
between state and federal law. Freightliner Corp. v.
Myrick, 514 U. S. 280, 287 (1995).
When addressing questions of express or implied pre
emption, we begin our analysis “with the assumption that
the historic police powers of the States [are] not to be
superseded by the Federal Act unless that was the clear
and manifest purpose of Congress.” Rice v. Santa Fe
Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230 (1947). That assump
tion applies with particular force when Congress has
legislated in a field traditionally occupied by the States.
Lohr, 518 U. S., at 485; see also Reilly, 533 U. S., at 541–
542 (“Because ‘federal law is said to bar state action in [a]
6 ALTRIA GROUP, INC. v. GOOD
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3 79
Stat. 282.
4 Pub.
L. 91–222, 84 Stat. 87. Though actually enacted in 1970, Con
gress directed that it be cited as a “1969 Act.”
5 Comprehensive Smoking Education Act, Pub. L. 98–474, §4(a), 98
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7 In his dissent, JUSTICE THOMAS criticizes our reliance on the plural
ity opinion in Cipollone, post, at 6–8, 14–19, 22, and advocates adopting
the analysis set forth by JUSTICE SCALIA in his opinion concurring in the
judgment in part and dissenting in part in that case, post, at 3–6, 19–
21. But JUSTICE SCALIA’s approach was rejected by seven Members of
the Court, and in the almost 17 years since Cipollone was decided
Congress has done nothing to indicate its approval of that approach.
Moreover, JUSTICE THOMAS fails to explain why Congress would have
intended the result that JUSTICE SCALIA’s approach would produce—
namely, permitting cigarette manufacturers to engage in fraudulent
advertising. As a majority of the Court concluded in Cipollone, nothing
in the Labeling Act’s language or purpose supports that result.
8 The Cipollone plurality further stated that the warning neutraliza
ing petitioners’ use of the statements “light” and “lowered tar and
nicotine” could also support a warning neutralization claim. But
respondents did not bring such a claim, and the fact that they could
have does not, as petitioners suggest, elevate form over substance.
There is nothing new in the recognition that the same conduct might
violate multiple proscriptions.
12 ALTRIA GROUP, INC. v. GOOD
into the FTC’s inaction when that inaction is in part the result of
petitioners’ failure to disclose study results showing that Cambridge
Filter Method test results do not reflect the amount of tar and nicotine
that consumers of “light” cigarettes actually inhale. See id., at 8–11.
20 ALTRIA GROUP, INC. v. GOOD
It is so ordered.
Cite as: 555 U. S. ____ (2008) 1
No. 07–562
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2 Also, as in Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 505 U. S. 504 (1992), the
fractured decision in Lohr was a source of confusion for the lower
courts. See Kemp v. Medtronic, Inc., 231 F. 3d 216, 224 (CA6 2000)
(“The various courts of appeals that have confronted issues of preemp
tion arising under the MDA have struggled mightily with Lohr’s
language in an effort to discern its holding”); see also Martin v. Med
tronic, Inc., 254 F. 3d 573, 579 (CA5 2001) (“Because only parts of
Justice Stevens’s opinion commanded a majority, extracting the final
meaning of Lohr is no easy task. . . . Although Justice Breyer’s concur
rence very specifically disavows the view that common law duties
cannot provide substantive requirements for the purpose of preemption,
neither his concurrence nor the plurality opinion offers much help to us
in developing the point”). The confusion was cleared up in Riegel. See
infra, at 11–13.
Cite as: 555 U. S. ____ (2008) 11
against its own determination that the Labeling Act pre-empts failure
to-warn claims. But just as there is no basis in fact or law to contend
that the Labeling Act encourages the marketing of hazardous products
without adequate warning labels, ante, at 10, n. 8, there is no basis
to contend that the text of the Labeling Act permits fraudulent
18 ALTRIA GROUP, INC. v. GOOD
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advertising.
4 The majority contends that the relatively constrained enforcement
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5 The United States, in its amicus brief and at oral argument, con