The Supreme Court is faced yet again with the decision of whether to bar state court remedies to individuals who have suffered personal injury from drugs and products. The question is whether the state laws that protect product users and patients from the negligence of manufacturers are "preempted," or wiped away, by federal laws. The cases the Court is currently faced with involve potentially dangerous vaccines, seat belt designs, and generic drugs. However, the preemption debate is about much more. It's about whether injured individuals will ever have their day in court against the entities that failed to live up to their obligations.
"Preemption" exists when a state law is made invalid due to its interaction with a federal law, which will always be superior. However, not just any federal law will preempt a state law. A court must not invalidate a state law unless Congress intended to override the state law when it drafted the federal law. Merely being related is not enough. It must be clear that Congress's purpose was to preempt. This can be demonstrated either by explicitly preempting state law in the federal law, or where it is impossible to satisfy both laws simultaneously, or where Congress's involvement in a particular area is so comprehensive that it could be considered to have intended to preempt the entire area of law.
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