Cite as: 505 U. S. 504 (1992)
Opinion of Blackmun, J.
siana, 451 U. S. 725, 746 (1981) ("Consideration under the Supremacy Clause starts with the basic assumption that Congress did not intend to displace state law"); Avocado Growers, 373 U. S., at 146-147 ("[W]e are not to conclude that Congress legislated the ouster of this [state] statute . . . in the absence of an unambiguous congressional mandate to that effect"); Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Bd., 330 U. S. 767, 780 (1947) ("Any indulgence in construction should be in favor of the States, because Congress can speak with drastic clarity whenever it chooses to assure full federal authority, completely displacing the States") (opinion of Frankfurter, J.).
The principles of federalism and respect for state sovereignty that underlie the Court's reluctance to find preemption where Congress has not spoken directly to the issue apply with equal force where Congress has spoken, though ambiguously. In such cases, the question is not whether Congress intended to pre-empt state regulation, but to what extent. We do not, absent unambiguous evidence, infer a scope of pre-emption beyond that which clearly is mandated by Congress' language.1 I therefore agree with the Court's unwillingness to conclude that the state common-law damages claims at issue in this case are pre-empted unless such result is " 'the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.' " Ante, at 516 (quoting Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S., at 230).
B
I also agree with the Court's application of the foregoing principles in Part IV of its opinion, where it concludes that
1 The Court construes congressional inroads on state power narrowly in other contexts, as well. For example, the Court repeatedly has held that, in order to waive a State's sovereign immunity from suit in federal court, Congress must make its intention "unmistakably clear in the language of the statute." Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon, 473 U. S. 234, 242 (1985); Dellmuth v. Muth, 491 U. S. 223, 228 (1989).
533
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