542
Opinion of Blackmun, J.
criminal penalties (misdemeanor and fine not to exceed $10,000) for violations of the Act's provisions (§ 1338), and authorizes federal courts, upon the Government's application, to enjoin violations of the Act (§ 1339). Unlike the plurality, I am unwilling to believe that Congress, without any mention of state common-law damages actions or of its intention dramatically to expand the scope of federal pre-emption, would have eliminated the only means of judicial recourse for those injured by cigarette manufacturers' unlawful conduct.
Thus, not only does the plain language of the 1969 Act fail clearly to require pre-emption of petitioner's state common-law damages claims, but there is no suggestion in the legislative history that Congress intended to expand the scope of the pre-emption provision in the drastic manner that the plurality attributes to it. Our obligation to infer pre-emption only where Congress' intent is clear and manifest mandates the conclusion that state common-law damages actions are not pre-empted by the 1969 Act.6
III
Stepping back from the specifics of the plurality's preemption analysis to view the result the plurality ultimately reaches, I am further disturbed. Notwithstanding the Court's ready acknowledgment that " ' "[t]he purpose of Congress is the ultimate touchstone" ' of pre-emption analysis," ante, at 516 (quoting Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U. S. 497, 504 (1978)), the plurality proceeds to create a crazy quilt
6 Every Court of Appeals to consider the question, including the Third Circuit in an earlier opinion in this case, similarly has concluded that state common-law damages claims are not expressly pre-empted under the 1969 Act. See, e. g., Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 789 F. 2d 181, 185-186 (CA3 1986), cert. denied, 479 U. S. 1043 (1987); Pennington v. Vistron Corp., 876 F. 2d 414, 418 (CA5 1989); Roysdon v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 849 F. 2d 230, 234 (CA6 1988); Palmer v. Liggett Group, Inc., 825 F. 2d 620, 625 (CA1 1987). See also Dewey v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 121 N. J. 69, 85, 577 A. 2d 1239, 1247 (1990); Forster v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 437 N. W. 2d 655, 658 (Minn. 1989).
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