Cite as: 505 U. S. 88 (1992)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
of "actual conflict" described in our pre-emption cases. Absent the express provisions of § 18 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), 29 U. S. C. § 667, I would not say that state supplementary regulation conflicts with the purposes of the OSH Act, or that it " 'interferes with the methods by which the federal statute was designed to reach [its] goal.' " Ante, at 103 (quoting International Paper Co. v. Ouellette, 479 U. S. 481, 494 (1987)).
The plurality's broad view of actual conflict pre-emption is
contrary to two basic principles of our pre-emption jurisprudence. First, we begin "with the assumption that the historic police powers of the States [are] not to be superseded . . . unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress." Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230 (1947); see also ante, at 96. Second, " '[t]he purpose of Congress is the ultimate touchstone' " in all pre-emption cases. Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U. S. 497, 504 (1978) (quoting Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 375 U. S. 96, 103 (1963)). A freewheeling judicial inquiry into whether a state statute is in tension with federal objectives would undercut the principle that it is Congress rather than the courts that preempts state law.
Nonetheless, I agree with the Court that "the OSH Act pre-empts all state 'occupational safety and health standards relating to any occupational safety or health issue with respect to which a Federal standard has been promulgated.' " Ante, at 105 (quoting 29 U. S. C. § 667(b)). I believe, however, that this result is mandated by the express terms of § 18(b) of the OSH Act. It follows from this that the preemptive scope of the Act is also limited to the language of the statute. When the existence of pre-emption is evident from the statutory text, our inquiry must begin and end with the statutory framework itself.
A finding of express pre-emption in this case is not contrary to our longstanding rule that we will not infer preemption of the States' historic police powers absent a clear
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