Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141, 6 (2001)

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146

EGELHOFF v. EGELHOFF

Opinion of the Court

plan proceeds from distribution under terms of the plan documents," but merely alters "the underlying circumstances to which the distribution scheme of [the] plan must be applied." 139 Wash. 2d, at 578, 989 P. 2d, at 91.

Courts have disagreed about whether statutes like that of Washington are pre-empted by ERISA. Compare, e. g., Manning v. Hayes, 212 F. 3d 866 (CA5 2000) (finding preemption), cert. pending, No. 00-265,* and Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Hanslip, 939 F. 2d 904 (CA10 1991) (same), with, e. g., Emard v. Hughes Aircraft Co., 153 F. 3d 949 (CA9 1998) (finding no pre-emption), and 139 Wash. 2d, at 557, 989 P. 2d, at 80 (same). To resolve the conflict, we granted certiorari. 530 U. S. 1242 (2000).

II

Petitioner argues that the Washington statute falls within the terms of ERISA's express pre-emption provision and that it is pre-empted by ERISA under traditional principles of conflict pre-emption. Because we conclude that the statute is expressly pre-empted by ERISA, we address only the first argument.

ERISA's pre-emption section, 29 U. S. C. § 1144(a), states that ERISA "shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan" covered by ERISA. We have observed repeatedly that this broadly worded provision is "clearly expansive." New York State Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Ins. Co., 514 U. S. 645, 655 (1995); see, e. g., Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U. S. 374, 384 (1992) (listing cases in which we have described ERISA pre-emption in broad terms). But at the same time, we have recognized that the term "relate to" cannot be taken "to extend to the furthest stretch of its indeterminacy," or else "for all practical purposes pre-emption would never run its course." Travelers, supra, at 655.

*[Reporter's Note: See post, p. 941.]

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