Cite as: 511 U. S. 531 (1994)
Souter, J., dissenting
The Court has indeed given full effect to Bankruptcy Code terms even in cases where the Code would appear to have cut closer to the heart of state power than it does here. No "clearer textual guidance" than a general definitional provision was required, for example, to hold that criminal restitution could be a "debt" dischargeable under Chapter 13, see Davenport, 495 U. S., at 563-564 (declining to "carve out a broad judicial exception" from statutory term, even to avoid "hamper[ing] the flexibility of state criminal judges"). Nor, in Perez v. Campbell, 402 U. S. 637 (1971), did we require an express reference to state highway safety laws before construing the generally worded discharge provision of the Bankruptcy Act to bar application of a state statute suspending the driver's licenses of uninsured tortfeasors.19
Rather than allow state practice to trump the plain meaning of federal statutes, cf. Adams Fruit Co. v. Barrett, 494 U. S. 638, 648 (1990), our cases describe a contrary rule: whether or not Congress has used any special "pre-emptive" language, state regulation must yield to the extent it actually conflicts with federal law. This is no less true of laws enacted under Congress's power to "establish . . . uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies," U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 4, than of those passed under its Commerce Clause power. See generally Perez v. Campbell, supra; cf. id., at
19 Only over vigorous dissent did the Court read the trustee's generally worded abandonment power, 11 U. S. C. § 554, as not authorizing abandonment "in contravention of a state statute or regulation that is reasonably designed to protect the public health or safety from identified hazards." Midlantic Nat. Bank v. New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, 474 U. S. 494, 505 (1986); cf. id., at 513 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ("Congress knew how to draft an exception covering the exercise of 'certain' police powers when it wanted to"); cf. also L. Cherkis & L. King, Collier Real Estate Transactions and the Bankruptcy Code, p. 6-24 (1992) (post-Midlantic cases suggest that "if the hazardous substances on the property do not pose immediate danger to the public, and if the trustee has promptly notified local environmental authorities of the contamination and cooperated with them, abandonment may be permitted").
567
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