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Opinion of O'Connor, J.
Justice O'Connor, with whom Justice Thomas joins as to all but Part I-B, concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part.
In permitting respondents' contract action to go forward, the Court arrives at what might be a reasonable policy judgment as to when state law actions against airlines should be pre-empted if we were free to legislate it. It is not, however, consistent with our controlling precedents, and it requires some questionable assumptions about the nature of contract law. I would hold that none of respondents' actions may proceed.
I
A
The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (ADA) says that "no State . . . shall enact or enforce any law, rule, regulation, standard, or other provision having the force and effect of law relating to rates, routes, or services of any air carrier." 49 U. S. C. App. § 1305(a)(1).1 We considered the scope of that provision in Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U. S. 374 (1992). We noted the similarity of § 1305's language to the pre-emption provision in ERISA, 29 U. S. C. § 1144(a), and said that, like ERISA's § 1144, § 1305's words "express a broad pre-emptive purpose." 504 U. S., at 383. We concluded that "State enforcement actions having a connection with, or reference to, airline 'rates, routes, or services' are pre-empted." Id., at 384.
Applying Morales to this case, I agree with the Court that respondents' consumer fraud and contract claims are "related to" airline "rates" and "services." See ante, at 226. The Court says, however, that judicial enforcement of a contract's
1 Congress has recently amended this statute to read: "[A] State . . . may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of an air carrier." 49 U. S. C. § 41713(b)(1) (1994 ed.). Congress intended this amendment to be "without substantive change." See Pub. L. 103-272, § 1(a), 108 Stat. 745.
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