Preemption of common law claims and the prospects for FIFRA: Justice Stevens puts the genie back in the bottle.(Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act)

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum, September, 2004 by Hendricks, Jennifer S.

INTRODUCTION

On a range of high-profile issues from affirmative action to sexual privacy to sovereign immunity, the Supreme Court in its 2002 Term declined to take the next expected step in its conservative revision of constitutional law. (1) With less fanfare, the Court did the same on preemption doctrine. On the question of when and to what extent federal safety regulations preempt state tort claims against regulated industries, a unanimous Court in Sprietsma v. Mercury Marine (2) halted what one scholar has identified as an unacknowledged but increasingly broad presumption in favor of preemption. (3) And in a single paragraph, the Court rejected the reasoning of countless lower court decisions in favor of preemption. (4) By speaking unanimously, the Court...

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