Oneok, Inc., v. Learjet, Inc. (575 U.S. 373)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 21, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 575 U.S. 373 · 135 S. Ct. 1591
- Decided
- April 21, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2014
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice BREYERdelivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, a group of manufacturers, hospitals, and other institutions that buy natural gas directly from interstate pipelines sued the pipelines, claiming that they engaged in behavior that violated state antitrust laws. The pipelines' behavior affected bothfederally regulated wholesale natural-gas prices andnonfederally regulated retailnatural-gas prices. The question is whether the federal Natural Gas Act pre-empts these lawsuits. We have said that, in passing the Act, "Congress occupied the field of matters relating to wholesale sales and transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce." Schneidewind v. ANR Pipeline Co.,485 U.S. 293, 305, 108 S.Ct. 1145, 99 L.Ed.2d 316 (1988). Nevertheless, for the reasons given below, we conclude that the Act does not pre-empt the state-law antitrust suits at issue here. I A The Supremacy Clause provides that "the Laws of the United States" (as well as treaties and the Constitution itself) "shall be the supreme Law of the Land ... any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any state to the Contrary notwithstanding." Art. VI, cl. 2. Congress may consequently pre-empt, i.e.,invalidate, a state law through federal legislation. It may do so through express language in a statute. But even where, as here, a statute does not refer expressly to pre-emption, Congress may implicitly pre-empt…
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