546
Opinion of Scalia, J.
That is precisely what our express pre-emption cases have done. Less than a month ago, in Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U. S. 374 (1992), we held that the Airline Deregulation Act's provision pre-empting state laws "relating to [airline] rates, routes, or services," 49 U. S. C. App. § 1305(a)(1), was broad enough to reach state fare advertising regulations despite the availability of plausible limiting constructions. We made no mention of any "plain-statement" rule, or rule of narrow construction, but applied the usual "'"assumption that the ordinary meaning of [the statutory] language accurately expresses the legislative purpose."'" Morales, supra, at 383 (quoting FMC Corp. v. Holliday, 498 U. S. 52, 57 (1990)) (emphasis added). And last Term, in Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U. S. 117 (1991), we interpreted an express pre-emption provision broadly despite the fact that a well-respected canon of statutory construction supported a narrower reading. See id., at 129; id., at 136 (Stevens, J., dissenting). We said not a word about a "presumption against . . . preemption," ante, at 518, that was to be applied to construction of the text.
In light of our willingness to find pre-emption in the absence of any explicit statement of pre-emptive intent, the notion that such explicit statements, where they exist, are subject to a "plain-statement" rule is more than somewhat odd. To be sure, our jurisprudence abounds with rules of "plain statement," "clear statement," and "narrow construction" designed variously to ensure that, absent unambiguous evidence of Congress's intent, extraordinary constitutional powers are not invoked, or important constitutional protections eliminated, or seemingly inequitable doctrines applied. See, e. g., United States v. Mitchell, 445 U. S. 535, 538 (1980) (waivers of federal sovereign immunity must be "unequivocally expressed"); Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police, 491 U. S. 58, 65 (1989) (clear statement required to compel States to entertain damages suits against themselves in state
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