Cite as: 536 U. S. 355 (2002)
Thomas, J., dissenting
cluded that federal pre-emption occurs where state law governing insurance " 'stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.' " Harris Trust, supra, at 99 (quoting Silkwood, 464 U. S., at 248).
Consequently, the Court until today had consistently held that state laws that seek to supplant or add to the exclusive remedies in § 502(a) of ERISA, 29 U. S. C. § 1132(a), are preempted because they conflict with Congress' objective that rights under ERISA plans are to be enforced under a uniform national system. See, e. g., Ingersoll-Rand Co., supra, at 142-145; Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U. S. 58, 64-66 (1987); Pilot Life, supra, at 52-57. The Court has explained that § 502(a) creates an "interlocking, interrelated, and interdependent remedial scheme," and that a beneficiary who claims that he was wrongfully denied benefits has "a panoply of remedial devices" at his disposal. Russell, 473 U. S., at 146. It is exactly this enforcement scheme that Pilot Life described as "represent[ing] a careful balancing of the need for prompt and fair claims settlement procedures against the public interest in encouraging the formation of employee benefit plans," 481 U. S., at 54. Central to that balance is the development of "a federal common law of rights and obligations under ERISA-regulated plans." Id., at 56.
In addressing the relationship between ERISA's remedies under § 502(a) and a state law regulating insurance, the Court has observed that "[t]he policy choices reflected in the inclusion of certain remedies and the exclusion of others under the federal scheme would be completely undermined if ERISA-plan participants and beneficiaries were free to obtain remedies under state law that Congress rejected in ERISA." Id., at 54. Thus, while the preeminent federal interest in the uniform administration of employee benefit plans yields in some instances to varying state regulation of the business of insurance, the exclusivity and uniformity of
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