Cite as: 505 U. S. 88 (1992)
Souter, J., dissenting
bly not to have a pre-emptive effect, the presumption controls and no pre-emption may be inferred.
III
At first blush, respondent's strongest argument might seem to rest on § 18(a) of the Act, 29 U. S. C. § 667(a), the full text of which is this:
"(a) Assertion of State standards in absence of applicable Federal standards
"Nothing in this chapter shall prevent any State agency or court from asserting jurisdiction under State law over any occupational safety or health issue with respect to which no standard is in effect under section 655 of this title."
That is to say, where there is no federal standard in effect, there is no pre-emption. The plurality reasons that there must be pre-emption, however, when there is a federal standard in effect, else § 18(a) would be rendered superfluous because "[t]here is no possibility of conflict where there is no federal regulation." Ante, at 100.
The plurality errs doubly. First, its premise is incorrect. In the sense in which the plurality uses the term, there is the possibility of "conflict" even absent federal regulation since the mere enactment of a federal law like the Act may amount to an occupation of an entire field, preventing state regulation. Second, the necessary implication of § 18(a) is not that every federal regulation pre-empts all state law on the issue in question, but only that some federal regulations may pre-empt some state law. The plurality ignores the possibility that the provision simply rules out field preemption and is otherwise entirely compatible with the possibility that pre-emption will occur only when actual conflict between a federal regulation and a state rule renders compliance with both impossible. Indeed, if Congress had meant to say that any state rule should be pre-empted if it deals
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