592
Opinion of Stevens, J.
see also Cipollone, 505 U. S., at 518. If Congress' intent to pre-empt a particular category of regulation is ambiguous, such regulations are not pre-empted.1
The text of the pre-emption provision must be viewed in context, with proper attention paid to the history, structure, and purpose of the regulatory scheme in which it appears. See, e. g., Medtronic, 518 U. S., at 484-486; New York State Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Ins. Co., 514 U. S. 645, 655-656 (1995); Cipollone, 505 U. S., at 513-515, 519-520, 529, 530, n. 27; accord, ante, at 542.2 An assessment of the scope of a pre-emption provision must give effect to a "reasoned understanding of the way in which Congress intended the statute and its surrounding regulatory scheme to affect business, consumers, and the law." Medtronic, 518 U. S., at 486.
This task, properly performed, leads inexorably to the conclusion that Congress did not intend to pre-empt state and local regulations of the location of cigarette advertising when it adopted the provision at issue in this suit. In both 1965 and 1969, Congress made clear the purposes of its regulatory
1 See, e. g., Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U. S. 132, 146-147 (1963) ("[W]e are not to conclude that Congress legislated the ouster of this [state] statute . . . in the absence of an unambiguous congressional mandate to that effect"); Cipollone, 505 U. S., at 533 (Blackmun, J., joined by Kennedy and Souter, JJ., concurring in part, concurring in judgment in part, and dissenting in part) ("The principles of federalism and respect for state sovereignty that underlie the Court's reluctance to find pre-emption where Congress has not spoken directly to the issue apply with equal force where Congress has spoken, though ambiguously. In such cases, the question is not whether Congress intended to pre-empt state regulation, but to what extent. We do not, absent unambiguous evidence, infer a scope of pre-emption beyond that which clearly is mandated by Congress' language" (emphasis deleted)).
2 Cf. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 159 F. 2d 167, 169 (CA2 1947) (L. Hand, J.) ("There is no more likely way to misapprehend the meaning of language—be it in a constitution, a statute, a will or a contract—than to read the words literally, forgetting the object which the document as a whole is meant to secure").
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