What is field preemption?

Answer 1

Field Preemption - Where the federal government (congress or in some cases a regulatory agency acting with congressional approval) intends to create a comprehensive set of laws, rules, or regulations, that will govern an entire area or "field" state law is invald and uneforcable. Ex. The federal government regulates in the entire field of certain banking activities and therefore any state law that would attempt to regulate the same subject matter would be preempted and therefore invald.

The preeemption docrtine is derived from the supremecy clause of the United States Constitution which expressly states that the rules created under that constitution are the supreme law of the land.

There are three types of preemption; express, field (implied), and conflict. Congress may preempt state law by expressly stating its intent. See, e.g., Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U.S. 519, 525 (1977). Congressional intent may be inferred in a particular area, see California Federal, 479 U.S. at 280. "Implied" includes statutes in which "the scheme of federal regulation is sufficiently comprehensive to make reasonable the inference that Congress 'left no room' for supplementary state regulation." Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218, 230 (1947). In this latter situation, Congressional intent to preempt state law results from the fact that Congress has "occupied the field" available to state regulation. Federal law preempts state law even where there is no express or implied intent of Congress to preempt state regulation, if 2 the state law conflicts with federal law. This conflict can result from the fact that state regulation makes compliance with the federal law a "physical impossibility," Florida Lime and Avocado Growers. Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 142-43 (1963) or where the state law stands "as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress." Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67 (1941). See also Barnett Bank v. Nelson, 517 U.S. 25 (1996).