Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363, 17 (2000)

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Cite as: 530 U. S. 363 (2000)

Opinion of the Court

vide financial services, § 7:22G(b), and general goods and services, § 7:22G(d), to the Government of Burma, and thus prohibits contracts between the State and United States persons for goods, services, or technology, even though those transactions are explicitly exempted from the ambit of new investment prohibition when the President exercises his discretionary authority to impose sanctions under the federal Act. § 570(f)(2).

As with the subject of business meant to be affected, so with the class of companies doing it: the state Act's generality stands at odds with the federal discreteness. The Massachusetts law directly and indirectly imposes costs on all companies that do any business in Burma, § 7:22G, save for those reporting news or providing international telecommunications goods or services, or medical supplies, §§ 7:22H(e), 7:22I. It sanctions companies promoting the importation of natural resources controlled by the Government of Burma, or having any operations or affiliates in Burma. § 7:22G. The state Act thus penalizes companies with pre-existing affiliates or investments, all of which lie beyond the reach of the federal Act's restrictions on "new investment" in Burmese economic development. §§ 570(b), 570(f)(2). The state Act, moreover, imposes restrictions on foreign companies as well as domestic, whereas the federal Act limits its reach to United States persons.

The conflicts are not rendered irrelevant by the State's argument that there is no real conflict between the statutes because they share the same goals and because some companies may comply with both sets of restrictions. See Brief for Petitioners 21-22. The fact of a common end hardly neutralizes conflicting means,14 see Gade v. National Solid

14 The State's reliance on CTS Corp. v. Dynamics Corp. of America, 481 U. S. 69, 82-83 (1987), for the proposition that "[w]here the state law furthers the purpose of the federal law, the Court should not find conflict" is misplaced. See Brief for Petitioners 21-22. In CTS Corp., we found that an Indiana state securities law "further[ed] the federal policy of investor

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