preemption
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 312 U.S. 52 - Hines v. Davidowitz · 1941Most cited · 5,429 citing opinions
Our primary function is to determine whether, under the circumstances of this particular case, Pennsylvania's law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.
How the Supreme Court has restated “preemption”
Each Supreme Court definition of “preemption,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “preemption”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “preemption” — 6,378 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1937–1963
- ORIGINAL
The principle is thoroughly established that the exercise by the state of its police power, which would be valid if not superseded by federal action, is superseded only where the repugnance or conflict is so 'direct and positive' that the two acts cannot 'be reconciled or consistently stand together.
- 1963·372 U.S. 714 - Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission v. Continental Air Lines, Inc.[p13]· cited 426×
To hold that a state statute identical in purpose with a federal statute is invalid under the Supremacy Clause, we must be able to conclude that the purpose of the federal statute would to some extent be frustrated by the state statute.
Supremacy Clause