Cite as: 505 U. S. 504 (1992)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
1965 version of § 5 was precise and narrow on its face; the obviously broader language of the 1969 version extended that section's pre-emptive reach. Moreover, while the version of the 1969 Act passed by the Senate pre-empted "any State statute or regulation with respect to . . . advertising or promotion," S. Rep. No. 91-566, p. 16 (1969), the Conference Committee replaced this language with "State law with respect to advertising or promotion." In such a situation, § 5(b)'s pre-emption of "state law" cannot fairly be limited to positive enactments.
That the pre-emptive scope of § 5(b) cannot be limited to positive enactments does not mean that that section preempts all common-law claims. For example, as respondents concede, § 5(b) does not generally pre-empt "state-law obligations to avoid marketing cigarettes with manufacturing defects or to use a demonstrably safer alternative design for cigarettes." 21 For purposes of § 5(b), the common law is not of a piece.
Nor does the statute indicate that any familiar subdivision of common-law claims is or is not pre-empted. We therefore cannot follow petitioner's passing suggestion that § 5(b) preempts liability for omissions but not for acts, or that § 5(b) pre-empts liability for unintentional torts but not for intentional torts. Instead we must fairly but—in light of the strong presumption against pre-emption—narrowly construe the precise language of § 5(b) and we must look to each of petitioner's common-law claims to determine whether it is in fact pre-empted.22 The central inquiry in each case is
21 Brief for Respondents 14.
22 Petitioner makes much of the fact that Congress did not expressly include common law within § 5's pre-emptive reach, as it has in other statutes. See, e. g., 29 U. S. C. § 1144(c)(1); 12 U. S. C. § 1715z-17(d). Respondents make much of the fact that Congress did not include a saving clause preserving common-law claims, again, as it has in other statutes. See, e. g., 17 U. S. C. § 301. Under our analysis of § 5, these omissions make perfect sense: Congress was neither pre-empting nor saving common law
523
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