GRABER, J.
The issue before us in this interstate custody dispute is whether the federal Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act (PKPA), 28 USC § 1738A (1994), and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), ORS 109.700 to 109.930, allow Oregon to modify a particular California custody decree. The trial court modified the decree, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Henry and Keppel,
143 Or App 203, 205, 922 P2d 712 (1996). We reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the trial court for farther proceedings.
The Court of Appeals reviewed the facts in this case
de novo,
pursuant to ORS 19.125(3).
Ibid.
As permitted by ORS 19.125(4), we limit our review to questions of law and take the following facts from the findings of the Court of Appeals.
“Mother and father, who never married, began living together in California in the spring of 1983. Their daughter was born in July 1984. After the parties separated in July 1985, mother moved with the child to Oregon, where they have resided ever since. In December 1985, father began a proceeding in California to establish paternity and joint custody. Mother sought sole custody. In October 1987, the California court ordered joint legal custody, with physical custody awarded to mother. Father was granted visitation, including all but three weeks of summer vacation, spring break, and half of the Christmas holidays. Father exercises those visitation rights in California and, two to four times a year, he spends four days with his daughter, either in California or in Oregon.
“In June 1988, father filed an action in Jackson County to enforce the California order against mother. Mother was never served. Five years later, mother moved to change the venue of father’s enforcement action to Josephine County. Over father’s objection, her motion was granted. In March 1994, mother obtained an order to show cause in Josephine County, seeking sole custody and limiting father’s visitation. Father moved to dismiss the modification proceeding for lack of jurisdiction. The court denied father’s motion, as
well as his later motion for reconsideration. The court modified the California decree to award mother sole legal custody and to modify father’s visitation.”
Ibid,
(footnote omitted).
Father appealed the trial court’s judgment, arguing that the court erred in modifying the decree because, under the PKPA and the UCCJA, California courts have continuing jurisdiction over this matter. Mother argued that California does not have continuing jurisdiction in the circumstances and that an Oregon court can modify the decree. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that there is not “substantial evidence” on the custody matter in California and, therefore, that Oregon can modify the decree.
Id.
at 208-09. This court allowed father’s petition for review.
To place our discussion of the specific issues in context, we recount briefly the history of both the UCCJA and the PKPA. The Commissioners on Uniform State Laws drafted the UCCJA in 1968 to resolve jurisdictional conflicts in child custody cases and to promote recognition and enforcement of out-of-state custody decrees.
Grubs v. Ross,
291 Or 263, 268-69, 630 P2d 353 (1981). AH states have adopted some form of the UCCJA. Anne B. Goldstein,
The Tragedy of the Interstate Child: A Critical Reexamination of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act and the Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act,
25 UC Davis L Rev 845, 849 (1992). Oregon has codified the UCCJA at ORS 109.700 to 109.930.
See Stubbs v. Weathersby,
320 Or 620, 624-25, 892 P2d 991 (1995) (summarizing the purposes of the UCCJA, as set forth in ORS 109.720(1)).
According to the United States Supreme Court, the UCCJA did not achieve its goal of resolving jurisdictional disputes.
See Thompson v. Thompson,
484 US 174, 181, 108 S Ct 513, 98 L Ed 2d 512 (1988) (so stating). Contributing to that failure were the lack of uniformity in the versions of the UCCJA adopted by the various states and the refusal by some courts to give full faith and credit to foreign custody decrees on the ground that such decrees are subject to modification in keeping with the best interests of the child.
Id.
at 180-81. In 1980, Congress attempted to resolve jurisdictional disputes by enacting the PKPA “to provide for nationwide
enforcement of custody orders made in accordance with the terms of the UCCJA.” ZcZ. at 181.
Because the PKPA is a federal law and the UCC JA is a state law, in examining the relationship between them we consider whether the doctrine of federal preemption applies. In general, under the Supremacy Clause, Congress has the power to enact an otherwise valid law that preempts state law,
and it may preempt state law in one of three ways. “Federal preemption may occur “by express provision, by implication, or by a conflict between federal and state law.’ ”
Shaw v. PACC Health Plan, Inc.,
322 Or 392, 398, 908 P2d 308 (1995) (quoting
New York Blue Cross v. Travelers Ins.,
514 US 645, 654, 115 S Ct 1671, 131 L Ed 2d 695 (1995)).
See also
Laurence H. Tribe,
American Constitutional Law
(2d ed 1988) § 6-25, at 481 n 14 (explaining the three types of preemption). In deciding whether a federal law preempts a state law, a court’s task is to determine whether Congress intended for the federal law in question to supersede state law.
Shaw,
322 Or at 398 (citing
Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc.,
463 US 85, 95, 103 S Ct 2890, 77 L Ed 2d 490 (1983)).
The United States Supreme Court has been reticent to find that federal law preempts state law in the area of domestic relations. In that field, the Court has asked “whether Congress has ‘positively required by direct enactment’ that state law be pre-empted.
Wetmore v. Markoe,
196 US 68, 77[, 25 S Ct 172, 49 L Ed 390] (1904).”
Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo,
439 US 572, 581, 99 S Ct 802, 59 L Ed 2d 1 (1979).
Here, Congress expressly has required in the PKPA that state law respecting certain proceedings to modify child custody determinations be preempted:
“The appropriate authorities of every State
shall enforce according to its terms, and
shall not modify except as provided in subsection (f) of this section, any child custody determination
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GRABER, J.
The issue before us in this interstate custody dispute is whether the federal Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act (PKPA), 28 USC § 1738A (1994), and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), ORS 109.700 to 109.930, allow Oregon to modify a particular California custody decree. The trial court modified the decree, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Henry and Keppel,
143 Or App 203, 205, 922 P2d 712 (1996). We reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the trial court for farther proceedings.
The Court of Appeals reviewed the facts in this case
de novo,
pursuant to ORS 19.125(3).
Ibid.
As permitted by ORS 19.125(4), we limit our review to questions of law and take the following facts from the findings of the Court of Appeals.
“Mother and father, who never married, began living together in California in the spring of 1983. Their daughter was born in July 1984. After the parties separated in July 1985, mother moved with the child to Oregon, where they have resided ever since. In December 1985, father began a proceeding in California to establish paternity and joint custody. Mother sought sole custody. In October 1987, the California court ordered joint legal custody, with physical custody awarded to mother. Father was granted visitation, including all but three weeks of summer vacation, spring break, and half of the Christmas holidays. Father exercises those visitation rights in California and, two to four times a year, he spends four days with his daughter, either in California or in Oregon.
“In June 1988, father filed an action in Jackson County to enforce the California order against mother. Mother was never served. Five years later, mother moved to change the venue of father’s enforcement action to Josephine County. Over father’s objection, her motion was granted. In March 1994, mother obtained an order to show cause in Josephine County, seeking sole custody and limiting father’s visitation. Father moved to dismiss the modification proceeding for lack of jurisdiction. The court denied father’s motion, as
well as his later motion for reconsideration. The court modified the California decree to award mother sole legal custody and to modify father’s visitation.”
Ibid,
(footnote omitted).
Father appealed the trial court’s judgment, arguing that the court erred in modifying the decree because, under the PKPA and the UCCJA, California courts have continuing jurisdiction over this matter. Mother argued that California does not have continuing jurisdiction in the circumstances and that an Oregon court can modify the decree. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that there is not “substantial evidence” on the custody matter in California and, therefore, that Oregon can modify the decree.
Id.
at 208-09. This court allowed father’s petition for review.
To place our discussion of the specific issues in context, we recount briefly the history of both the UCCJA and the PKPA. The Commissioners on Uniform State Laws drafted the UCCJA in 1968 to resolve jurisdictional conflicts in child custody cases and to promote recognition and enforcement of out-of-state custody decrees.
Grubs v. Ross,
291 Or 263, 268-69, 630 P2d 353 (1981). AH states have adopted some form of the UCCJA. Anne B. Goldstein,
The Tragedy of the Interstate Child: A Critical Reexamination of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act and the Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act,
25 UC Davis L Rev 845, 849 (1992). Oregon has codified the UCCJA at ORS 109.700 to 109.930.
See Stubbs v. Weathersby,
320 Or 620, 624-25, 892 P2d 991 (1995) (summarizing the purposes of the UCCJA, as set forth in ORS 109.720(1)).
According to the United States Supreme Court, the UCCJA did not achieve its goal of resolving jurisdictional disputes.
See Thompson v. Thompson,
484 US 174, 181, 108 S Ct 513, 98 L Ed 2d 512 (1988) (so stating). Contributing to that failure were the lack of uniformity in the versions of the UCCJA adopted by the various states and the refusal by some courts to give full faith and credit to foreign custody decrees on the ground that such decrees are subject to modification in keeping with the best interests of the child.
Id.
at 180-81. In 1980, Congress attempted to resolve jurisdictional disputes by enacting the PKPA “to provide for nationwide
enforcement of custody orders made in accordance with the terms of the UCCJA.” ZcZ. at 181.
Because the PKPA is a federal law and the UCC JA is a state law, in examining the relationship between them we consider whether the doctrine of federal preemption applies. In general, under the Supremacy Clause, Congress has the power to enact an otherwise valid law that preempts state law,
and it may preempt state law in one of three ways. “Federal preemption may occur “by express provision, by implication, or by a conflict between federal and state law.’ ”
Shaw v. PACC Health Plan, Inc.,
322 Or 392, 398, 908 P2d 308 (1995) (quoting
New York Blue Cross v. Travelers Ins.,
514 US 645, 654, 115 S Ct 1671, 131 L Ed 2d 695 (1995)).
See also
Laurence H. Tribe,
American Constitutional Law
(2d ed 1988) § 6-25, at 481 n 14 (explaining the three types of preemption). In deciding whether a federal law preempts a state law, a court’s task is to determine whether Congress intended for the federal law in question to supersede state law.
Shaw,
322 Or at 398 (citing
Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc.,
463 US 85, 95, 103 S Ct 2890, 77 L Ed 2d 490 (1983)).
The United States Supreme Court has been reticent to find that federal law preempts state law in the area of domestic relations. In that field, the Court has asked “whether Congress has ‘positively required by direct enactment’ that state law be pre-empted.
Wetmore v. Markoe,
196 US 68, 77[, 25 S Ct 172, 49 L Ed 390] (1904).”
Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo,
439 US 572, 581, 99 S Ct 802, 59 L Ed 2d 1 (1979).
Here, Congress expressly has required in the PKPA that state law respecting certain proceedings to modify child custody determinations be preempted:
“The appropriate authorities of every State
shall enforce according to its terms, and
shall not modify except as provided in subsection (f) of this section, any child custody determination
made consistently with the provisions of this section by a court of another State.” 28 USC § 1738A(a) (emphasis added).
The United. States Supreme Court has held that similar wording expressly preempts state law. For example, in
Cipol-lone v. Liggett Group, Inc.,
505 US 504, 514-17, 112 S Ct 2608, 120 L Ed 2d 407 (1992), the United States Supreme Court found express preemption both in a 1965 federal statute that provided that “[n]o statement relating to smoking and health shall be required” in cigarette advertising or package labeling that otherwise complies with the act and in a 1969 statute that replaced the foregoing provision with a statement that “[n]o requirement or prohibition based on smoking and health shall be imposed under State law with respect to” cigarette advertising or promotion that otherwise complies with the act.
Providing further support for a conclusion that Congress intended expressly to preempt state law on the present topic is the statement of Congressional Findings and Declaration of Purpose that follows the PKPA. Subsection (b) of that statement provides, in part:
“[I]t is necessary
* * *
to establish national standards
under which the courts of such jurisdictions will determine their jurisdiction to decide such disputes and the effect to be given by each such jurisdiction to such decisions by the courts of other such jurisdictions.” (Emphasis added.)
Congress further stated, in subsection (c)(5) of the statement of Congressional Findings and Declaration of Purpose, that one of the general purposes of the act is to
“avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict between State courts in matters of child custody and visitation which have in the past resulted in the shifting of children from State to State with harmful effects on their well-being.”
The terms of the statute, combined with those formal statements of congressional intent, show that Congress meant for the PKPA to preempt state law, including the UCCJA.
We hold that the PKPA preempts state law on the question of modifying another state’s child custody decree.
Having so held, we turn to the PKPA to resolve the dispute now before us. The PKPA requires states to enforce a child custody determination entered by a court of a sister state, if that determination was “made consistently with the provisions of’ the act. 28 USC § 1738A(a). A court’s custody determination is consistent with the provisions of the act if two conditions are met. 28 USC § 1738A(c). First, the state that entered the decree must have had jurisdiction under its
own laws. 28 USC § 1738A(c)(l). Second, one of the five conditions listed in section 1738A(c)(2)(A) through (E) must have been met.
In this case, we must determine whether those two requirements were satisfied at the time that a California court made the
initial
custody determination in October 1987. The first requirement is that California law give its courts jurisdiction. Pursuant to section 200 of the California Family Code, the California Superior Court had authority to make the initial custody determination.
4. The second requirement is that one of the conditions listed in 28 USC § 1738A(c)(2) be present. Those conditions commonly are referred to as “home state,” “significant connection,” “emergency,” “default,” and “continuing” “jurisdiction.” Here, California met the “home state” condition. The child hved with both mother and father in California for the
first year of her life. Mother and father separated in July 1985, at which time mother moved with the child to Oregon. Father began custody proceedings in December 1985. Because the child no longer lived with a parent in California on the date that the proceeding commenced, section 1738A(c)(2)(A)(i) is not satisfied. However, the child was absent less than six months before father commenced the proceeding, and the absence was caused by mother, a contestant. Additionally, father continued to live in California. Therefore, pursuant to section 1738A(c)(2)(A)(ii), California was the child’s home state on the date of the commencement of the initial custody proceeding.
Because California was then the child’s home state within the meaning of the PKPA, and because California had jurisdiction under its own laws to make the initial custody determination in this case, the October 1987 custody decree was “made consistently with the provisions of’ the PKPA. 28 USC § 1738A(c). Accordingly, that decree is entitled to “full faith and credit,” as provided in section 1738A(a).
Under section 1738A(f),
Oregon nonetheless may modify the 1987 California custody decree, but only if two conditions are met. First, Oregon must be able to modify the 1987 custody decree under its own laws. 28 USC § 1738A-(f)(1). Second, California courts must no longer have jurisdiction or must have declined to exercise jurisdiction. 28 USC § 1738A(f)(2). We turn to those two issues.
To determine whether Oregon presently may make a custody determination, we examine the UCC JA as enacted in Oregon. ORS 109.730 lists four conditions, which are similar to the first four listed in 28 USC § 1738A(c). The question is
whether any of those conditions was present when the Oregon
modification
proceeding began.
Both the definition of home state in ORS 109.710(5)® and the requirements in ORS 109.730(l)(a)
are similar to the equivalent provisions in the PKPA, discussed above. The child has lived with mother in Oregon since July 1985. The custody modification proceeding was filed in Oregon in March 1994. Thus, when the modification proceeding began in Oregon, the child had lived with mother in Oregon for almost nine years, and more than six years had passed since the issuance of the initial California decree. Because the child lived with mother in Oregon for more than six months before the commencement of the modification proceeding and also lived here when the proceeding began, Oregon now is the child’s home state. Oregon therefore may modify a custody decree under both ORS 109.730(l)(a) and 28 USC § 1738A-(f)(1).
The other issue under the PKPA is whether California has lost jurisdiction or has declined to exercise jurisdiction. The record does not suggest that, to date, California has in fact declined to exercise jurisdiction. 28 USC § 1738A(f)(2). We therefore address whether California continues to have jurisdiction.
California no longer has home state jurisdiction under 28 USC § 1738A(c)(2)(A) because, as concluded above, Oregon now is the child’s home state. Jurisdiction based on significant connections under section 1738A(c)(2)(B) does not apply, because such jurisdiction exists only if no other state
has home state jurisdiction. California lacks emergency jurisdiction under section 1738A(c)(2)(C), because the child is not physically present in that state and because there is no suggestion that the child has been abandoned or otherwise mistreated. Because we have concluded that Oregon would have jurisdiction within the meaning of section 1738A(f)(l), California lacks jurisdiction under section 1738A(c)(2)(D), which applies only when no other state has jurisdiction or when another state has declined to exercise jurisdiction.
The remaining possible basis for California’s jurisdiction is continuing jurisdiction under section 1738A-(c)(2)(E), which requires that the two conditions in section 1738A(d)
be met. Under subsection (d), California has continuing jurisdiction if it remains the residence of the child or of any contestant and if it has jurisdiction under its own state laws. The first prong of that provision is satisfied, because father continues to reside in California.
The second prong involves an analysis of California’s laws to determine whether that state currently has jurisdiction under its own laws. Specifically, we must determine whether a California court has jurisdiction to modify an initial California decree granting the parents of a minor child joint legal custody and giving physical custody to a non-California parent, when the child has lived with that parent outside California for several years but visits the other parent periodically in California. That is so because section 1738A(d) incorporates by reference the requirement of section 1738A-(c)(1) that the decree state presently have jurisdiction under its own laws.
Under California law, the governing statute is California Family Code §§ 3400 to 3425. Its application involves a two-step process. First, the court must determine whether it
has jurisdiction to make or to modify a custody determination. Cal Fam Code § 3403. If so, the court conducts an inconvenient forum analysis to determine whether it should decline to exercise jurisdiction on the basis that California is an inconvenient forum and that another state is a more appropriate forum. Cal Fam Code § 3407(a);
Kumar v. Superior Court of Santa Clara Cty.,
32 Cal 3d 689, 700-01, 652 P2d 1003, 1010-11, 186 Cal Rptr 772, 779-80 (1982).
In determining whether California has and should exercise jurisdiction in factual situations like the one before us, California Courts of Appeal have followed a line of cases suggesting that a trial court has no discretion to exercise jurisdiction when the California forum is substantially inconvenient in comparison to another forum.
See, e.g., Clark v. Superior Ct. in and for County of Mendocino,
73 Cal App 3d 298, 140 Cal Rptr 709 (1977) (California court must decline to exercise jurisdiction, when mother and child had moved to Oregon several years before California modification proceeding began, even though child had visited father in California almost every summer);
Hafer v. Superior Court, County of San Diego,
126 Cal App 3d 856, 179 Cal Rptr 132 (1981) (California court must decline to exercise jurisdiction, when father and children had moved to Idaho more than three years before California modification proceeding began and Idaho had become the children’s home state; “home state concept is * * * of the utmost importance,” 126 Cal App 3d at 866, 179 Cal Rptr at 138).
See also Schlumpf v. Superior Court of Cty. of Trinity,
79 Cal App 3d 892, 145 Cal Rptr 190 (1978) (Wyoming has jurisdiction to modify a Cahfornia custody decree and is a more convenient forum than California, when the children have lived with their father in Wyoming for the past five years);
Bosse v. Superior Court for Cty. of Santa Clara,
89 Cal App 3d 440, 152 Cal Rptr 665 (1979) (California
court should decline to modify a California custody decree on the basis of inconvenient forum, when child has lived with mother in Montana for two and one-half years). This case shares significant factual similarities with the cited cases.
The final interpretive question before us is whether, in the foregoing cases, the California courts “no longer ha[d] jurisdiction,” 28 USC § 1738A(f)(2), or whether instead the California courts simply “declined to exercise” jurisdiction.
Ibid.
Even though California appellate courts have held that, in certain circumstances, trial courts have no discretion to decide the merits of a modification request as a matter of law, those decisions have been made under the statute relating to a court’s “declin[ing] to exercise jurisdiction” on the basis of inconvenient forum. Cal Family Code § 3407(a). That is, the quoted statutory phrase suggests that the California trial court “has jurisdiction” that it must “decline to exercise,” not that the trial court “no longer has jurisdiction” at all. Accordingly, we do not believe that those cases can be read to stand for the proposition that the California forum may be so inconvenient in comparison to another forum that California “no longer has jurisdiction” within the meaning of 28 USC § 1738A(f)(2). We therefore conclude that California meets the requirements of 28 USC § 1738A(d) and has “continuing jurisdiction” within the meaning of 28 USC § 1738A(c)(2)(E). That being so, the Oregon court lacked authority under the PKPA to modify the Cahfornia custody decree, in the absence of a California court’s actually declining to exercise jurisdiction.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed. The judgment of the circuit court is vacated, and the case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.