American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens, 513 U.S. 219, 27 (1995)

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

Opinion of O'Connor, J.

at issue are contained in a contract, and have no legal force except insofar as state law makes them enforceable. But we concluded in Morales that § 1305 does pre-empt state law in those circumstances, unlike the statute in Cipollone. The difference between this case and Cipollone is the very different language in the two pre-emption statutes.

The Court also concludes that § 1305 only "stops States from imposing their own substantive standards with respect to rates, routes, or services," ante, at 232. In Morales, however, we specifically rejected an interpretation of § 1305 that would have rewritten it to read: No State shall " 'regulate rates, routes, and services.' " See Morales, 504 U. S., at 385-386. There is little distinction between "regulating rates, routes, and services" and "imposing substantive standards with respect to rates, routes, and services," and the Court does not explain how Morales' rejection of the former allows it now to adopt the latter. The Court relies on the statute's "saving clause," 49 U. S. C. App. § 1506, see ante, at 232, but we said in Morales that "[a] general 'remedies' saving clause cannot be allowed to supersede the specific substantive pre-emption provision," particularly where, as here, "the 'saving' clause is a relic of the pre-ADA/no pre-emption regime." Morales, 504 U. S., at 385.

Without question, Morales gave § 1305 a broad preemptive sweep. The dissent in that case argued that such a broad interpretation went too far by pre-empting areas of traditional state regulation without a clear expression of congressional intent to do so. Id., at 421-424 (Stevens, J., dissenting); see also ante, at 235, 237 (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). But the Court rejected the dissent's reading, holding instead that § 1305's language demonstrated a clear "statutory intent" to expressly preempt generally applicable state law as long as the "particularized application" of that law relates to airline rates, routes, or services. Morales, supra, at 383, 386, and n. 2.

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