American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens, 513 U.S. 219, 25 (1995)

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Cite as: 513 U. S. 219 (1995)

Opinion of O'Connor, J.

(same); Fenn v. American Airlines, Inc., 839 F. Supp. 1218, 1222-1223 (SD Miss. 1993) (same); Chouest v. American Airlines, Inc., 839 F. Supp. 412, 416-417 (ED La. 1993) (same); O'Hern v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 838 F. Supp. 1264, 1267 (ND Ill. 1993) (same); In re Air Disaster, 819 F. Supp. 1352, 1363 (ED Mich. 1993) (same); Butcher v. Houston, 813 F. Supp. 515, 518 (SD Tex. 1993) (same).

Our recent decision in Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U. S. 117 (1991), is relevant. The question in that case was whether a rail carrier's statutory exemption from "all other law," which we read to mean "all law as necessary to carry out an ICC-approved transaction," id., at 129, exempted the carrier from contractually imposed obligations. We held that it did. We noted that "[a] contract depends on a regime of common and statutory law for its effectiveness and enforcement," id., at 129-130, that "[a] contract has no legal force apart from the law that acknowledges its binding character," id., at 130, and that " '[l]aws which subsist at the time and place of the making of a contract, and where it is to be performed, enter into and form a part of it, as fully as if they had been expressly referred to or incorporated in its terms," ibid. (quoting Farmers and Merchants Bank of Monroe v. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 262 U. S. 649, 660 (1923)). Accordingly, we concluded that "the exemption . . . from 'all other law' effects an override of contractual obligations . . . by suspending application of the law that makes the contract binding." 499 U. S., at 130. In so concluding, we specifically rejected the Court of Appeals' views that the "all other law" exemption "[n]owhere . . . sa[id] that the ICC may also override contracts," and that it did not exempt the carrier from " 'all legal obstacles.' " Brotherhood of R. Carmen v. ICC, 880 F. 2d 562, 567 (CADC 1989); see Norfolk & Western, supra, at 133-134.

The Court does not dispute this reading of Norfolk & Western, which in my view makes clear that a State is enforcing its "law" when it brings its coercive power to bear

243

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