Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
505 U.S. 504 (1992)
Rose Cipollone smoked from 1942 until her 1984 death from lung cancer; her son (plaintiff) sued cigarette manufacturers, including Liggett Group (defendant), for failure to warn and other claims. A 1965 federal law required cigarette warning labels and preempted only additional "statement[s] relating to smoking and health" on packaging or advertising; a 1969 amendment broadened this to preempt any state-law "requirement or prohibition based on smoking and health" imposed on advertising or promotion. The trial court held the claims were not preempted, the court of appeals reversed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether, when Congress has considered preemption and included a provision explicitly defining a statute's preemptive reach, matters within that reach are preempted while matters beyond it are not.