NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR TRANSPORT ASS'N v. Rowe

377 F. Supp. 2d 197, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10394, 2005 WL 1319540
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedMay 27, 2005
DocketCIV. 03-178BH
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 377 F. Supp. 2d 197 (NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR TRANSPORT ASS'N v. Rowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR TRANSPORT ASS'N v. Rowe, 377 F. Supp. 2d 197, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10394, 2005 WL 1319540 (D. Me. 2005).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER ON CROSS MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

HORNBY, District Judge.

The Interstate Commerce Clause gives Congress the authority “[t]o regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States.” 1 Congress has exercised *200 this constitutional power to enact legislation that limits state authority over the transportation of goods by air and motor carriers. Does this federal legislation preempt a Maine statute that regulates carriers when they deliver tobacco products in Maine? Maine lawmakers had two worthy objectives in enacting the state statute: to reduce Maine teenagers’ access to tobacco products and to collect tobacco taxes. 2 But worthy motives are not enough to avoid federal preemption, as other states learned when they tried to regulate consumer fraud or deceptive advertising in the airline industry. 3 I denied a preliminary request to enjoin enforcement of the Maine statute. 4 But now I conclude that two of the three challenged state provisions cannot survive the broad preemptive language of the federal legislation and two recent First Circuit decisions. If there is to be regulation in this area, it will have to come from the federal government.

I. Procedural Background

New Hampshire Motor Transport Association, Massachusetts Motor Transportation Association and the Vermont Truck & Bus Association (“the associations”) are non-profit trade associations. Their members include motor carriers and air/ground carriers in the cargo transportation business. 5 The associations sued the Maine Attorney General, seeking a declaration that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (“FAAAA”), 6 preempts three provisions of Maine’s law regulating the retail sale and delivery of tobacco (“the Maine Tobacco Delivery Law”). 7 They also ask that I permanently enjoin enforcement of these provisions.

I previously denied the associations’ motion for summary judgment, and granted the Maine Attorney General’s subsequent motion for partial summary judgment, rejecting the argument that the FAAAA fa *201 cially preempts the Maine law. 8 Both parties now move again for summary judgment. The associations continue to argue facial preemption, and also bring an as-applied challenge based upon the Maine law’s effects on one of their members, United Parcel Service (“UPS”). 9 The Maine Attorney General argues that the FAAAA does not preempt the challenged provisions either facially or as applied. 10

II.Legal BackgRound

(A) Federal Regulation of the Transportation Industry

Federal regulation of the transportation industry dates back to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission (“ICC”) to regulate interstate railroad carriers. 11 Congress sought national uniformity in the regulation of interstate rail transport. It therefore limited state authority over railroad carriers (and other industries later regulated by the ICC.) 12

Congress placed motor carriers under ICC control with the Motor Carrier Act of 1935. 13 The Motor Carrier Act authorized the ICC to regulate the entry, routes, business practices, rates and safety of motor carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. A few years later, Congress created the Civil Aeronautics Authority, an agency similar to the ICC, to regulate air transportation. 14 The Civil Aeronautics Authority governed entry, routes, rates, *202 business practices and safety of the airline industry. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 recodified the Civil Aeronautics Act, continued the Civil Aeronautics Board (the reorganized form of the Civil Aeronautics Authority) 15 and established and transferred authority over safety regulation to the Federal Aviation Agency (later renamed the Federal Aviation Administration). 16

Since the 1970s, Congress has reversed course and deregulated the transportation industry. 17 In the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Congress reduced federal regulation of the airline industry to encourage maximum reliance on free market competition. 18 - Congress also prevented the States from interfering with federal deregulation by including a broad preemption provision prohibiting states from “enact[ing] or enforcing] any law ... relating to rates, routes, or services of any air carrier.” 19

In the 1994 FAAAA, Congress extended the Airline Deregulation Act’s preemption provision to prohibit state regulation of air/ground carriers as well. It also added a new provision preempting state regulation of motor carriers of property. 20 In the same language used in the Airline Deregulation Act’s preemption provision, the FAAAA preemption provisions broadly prohibit states from “enacting] or en-forc[ing] a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service” of a motor carrier, air carrier or air/ground carrier of property.

In enacting the FAAAA preemption provisions, Congress exercised its authority under the Interstate Commerce Clause to ease the burden intrastate regulation imposed on interstate" commerce. 21 Congress believed that the need for preemption of state authority arose out of a “patchwork of [state] regulation” of transportation, which created “a huge problem for national and regional carriers attempting to conduct a standard way of doing business.” It believed that intrastate regulation also resulted in higher rates for intrastate shipments. Congress designed the preemption provisions to eliminate diverse state regu *203 lations (such as regulation of entry, tariffs, prices and types of commodities carried), and promote uniform standards for air, air/ground and motor carriers engaged in the transportation of property. 22

(B) Federal Contraband Cigarette Law

Although Congress has limited state regulation .

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Related

Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport Ass'n
552 U.S. 364 (Supreme Court, 2008)
New Hampshire Motor Transport Ass'n v. Rowe
448 F.3d 66 (First Circuit, 2006)

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Bluebook (online)
377 F. Supp. 2d 197, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10394, 2005 WL 1319540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-hampshire-motor-transport-assn-v-rowe-med-2005.