16
Scalia, J., dissenting
court." 481 U. S., at 66. As in Avco and Franchise Tax Board, no explanation was provided for Avco's abrogation of the rule that "[f]ederal pre-emption is ordinarily a federal defense to the plaintiff's suit[, and as such] it does not appear on the face of a well-pleaded complaint, [nor does it] authorize removal to federal court." 1 481 U. S., at 63.
It is noteworthy that the straightforward (though similarly unsupported) rule announced in today's opinion—under which (1) removal is permitted "[w]hen [a] federal statute completely pre-empts a state-law cause of action," ante, at 8, and (2) a federal statute is completely pre-emptive when it "provide[s] the exclusive cause of action for the claim asserted," ibid.—is nowhere to be found in either Avco or Taylor. To the contrary, the analysis in today's opinion implicitly contradicts (by rendering inexplicable) Taylor's discussion of pre-emption and removal. (Avco, as I observed earlier, has no discussion to be contradicted.) Had it thought that today's decision was the law, the Taylor Court need not have taken pains to emphasize the "clos[e] parallels" between § 502(a)(1)(B) of ERISA and § 301 of the LMRA and need not have pored over the legislative history of § 502(a) to show that Congress expected ERISA to be treated like the LMRA. See Taylor, supra, at 65-66 (citing H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 93-1280, p. 327 (1974); 120 Cong. Rec. 29933 (1974) (remarks of Sen. Williams); id., at 29942 (remarks of Sen. Javits)). Instead, it could have rested after noting the "unique pre-emptive force of ERISA," Taylor, supra, at 65. Indeed, it could even have spared itself the trouble of add-1 This is not to say that Taylor was wrongly decided. Having been informed through the Avco Corp. v. Machinists, 390 U. S. 557 (1968), decision that the language of § 301 triggered "arising under" jurisdiction even with respect to certain state-law claims, Congress' subsequent decision to insert language into ERISA that "closely parallels" the text of § 301 can be viewed to be, as we said, a "specific reference to the Avco rule." 481 U. S., at 65-66. Taylor, in other words, rests upon a sort of statutory incorporation of Avco. Avco itself, on the other hand, continues to rest upon nothing.
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