U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirms Doctrine of Foreign Affairs Preemption

In American Ins. Assn. v. Garamendi, 539 U.S. 396 (June 23, 2003), the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the doctrine of “foreign affairs preemption,” invalidating a California statute that required insurance companies to disclose Holocaust-related information. Congress can preempt state law by enacting laws with which state legislative action is in conflict (i.e., “conflict preemption”), or by so fully occupying a particular field of rulemaking that there can be no room for state legislation (i.e., “field preemption”). Here, the Court primarily relied on conflict preemption to find that the state law was in conflict with foreign agreements the President had made. While the Court, therefore, did not reach the field preemption issue, it relied heavily on precedents holding that the Constitution entrusts “the field of foreign affairs” to the President and Congress. The decision implicates similar statutes and pending bills in at least eight other states.