132
Opinion of the Court
empted by § 514(a) because it related exclusively to exempt employee benefit plans "maintained solely for the purpose of complying with applicable . . . disability insurance laws" within the meaning of § 4(b)(3), 29 U. S. C. § 1003(b)(3). See 463 U. S., at 106-108. The fact that employers could comply with the New York law by administering the required disability benefits through a multibenefit ERISA plan did not mean that the law related to such ERISA plans for preemption purposes. See id., at 108. We simply held that as long as the employer's disability plan, "as an administrative unit, provide[d] only those benefits required by" the New York law, it could qualify as an exempt plan under ERISA § 4(b)(3). Id., at 107. Thus, unlike § 2(c)(2) of the District's Equity Amendment Act, the New York statute at issue in Shaw did not "relate to" an ERISA-covered plan.
Petitioners nevertheless point to Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U. S. 724 (1985), in which we described Shaw as holding that "the New York Human Rights Law and that State's Disability Benefits Law 'relate[d] to' welfare plans governed by ERISA." Id., at 739. Relying on this dictum and their reading of Shaw, petitioners argue that § 514(a) should be construed to require a two-step analysis: If the state law "relate[s] to" an ERISA-covered plan, it may still survive pre-emption if employers could comply with the law through separately administered plans exempt under § 4(b). See Tr. of Oral Arg. 16-17. But Metropolitan Life construed only the scope of § 514(b)(2)(A)'s safe harbor for state laws regulating insurance, see 471 U. S., at 739-747; it did not purport to add, by its passing reference to Shaw, any further gloss on § 514(a). And although we did conclude in Shaw that both New York laws at issue there related to "employee benefit plan[s]" in general, 463 U. S., at 100, only the Human Rights Law, which barred discrimination by ERISA plans, fell within the pre-emption provision. See id., at 100- 106. As we have explained, the Disability Benefits Law up-
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