Cite as: 518 U. S. 470 (1996)
Syllabus
Held: The judgment is reversed in part and affirmed in part, and the cases are remanded.
56 F. 3d 1335, reversed in part, affirmed in part, and remanded. Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to
Parts I, II, III, V, and VII, concluding that the MDA does not pre-empt the Lohrs' common-law claims. Pp. 484-486; 492-502; 503. (a) While the Court need not go beyond § 360k(a)'s pre-emptive language to determine whether Congress intended the MDA to pre-empt at least some state law, see Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 505 U. S. 504, 517, "the domain expressly pre-empted" by that language must be identified, ibid. Interpretation of the text is informed by the assumptions that the States' historic police powers cannot be superseded by a Federal Act unless that is Congress' clear and manifest purpose, Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230, and that any understanding of a pre-emption statute's scope rests primarily on "a fair understanding of congressional purpose," Cipollone, 505 U. S., at 530, n. 27. Pp. 484-486. (b) The Lohrs' negligent design claims are not pre-empted. The FDA's "substantially equivalent" determination as well as its continuing authority to exclude a device from the market do not amount to a specific, federally enforceable design requirement that would be affected by state-law pressures such as those imposed here. Since the § 510(k) process is focused on equivalence, not safety, substantial equivalence determinations provide little protection to the public. Neither the statutory scheme nor legislative history suggests that the § 510(k) process was intended to do anything other than maintain the status quo, which included the possibility that a device's manufacturer would have to defend itself against state-law negligent design claims. Pp. 492-494. (c) Section 360k(a) does not pre-empt state rules that merely duplicate the FDA's rules regulating manufacturing practices and labeling. That the state requirements may be narrower than the federal rules does not make them "different" under § 360k. Nor does the presence of a damages remedy amount to an additional or different "requirement"; it merely provides another reason for manufacturers to comply with identical existing federal law "requirements." This view is supported by the regulations of the FDA, to which Congress has delegated authority to implement the MDA. Pp. 494-497. (d) The Lohrs' manufacturing and labeling claims are not pre-empted. Although the statutory and regulatory language may not preclude "general" federal requirements from ever pre-empting state requirements, or "general" state requirements from ever being pre-empted, it is impossible to ignore its overarching concern that pre-emption occur only
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