Toy Manufacturers Of America, Inc. v. Blumenthal

986 F.2d 615, 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 36807
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedFebruary 22, 1993
Docket840
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 986 F.2d 615 (Toy Manufacturers Of America, Inc. v. Blumenthal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Toy Manufacturers Of America, Inc. v. Blumenthal, 986 F.2d 615, 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 36807 (2d Cir. 1993).

Opinion

986 F.2d 615

61 USLW 2544, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 13,440

TOY MANUFACTURERS OF AMERICA, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Richard BLUMENTHAL, Attorney General of the State of
Connecticut, and Gloria Schaffer, Commissioner, Department
of Consumer Protection, State of Connecticut, in their
representative capacities, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 840, Docket 92-9174.

United States Court of Appeals,
Second Circuit.

Argued Dec. 14, 1992.
Decided Dec. 22, 1992.
Opinion Filed Feb. 22, 1993.

Frederick N. Locker and Aaron Locker, New York City (Locker Greenberg & Brainin, P.C.), for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard Blumenthal, Atty. Gen. of the State of Conn. (Robert M. Langer, Neil G. Fishman and Megan O'Neill, Asst. Attys. Gen.), for defendants-appellees.

Before: CARDAMONE and PRATT, Circuit Judges, and LASKER, District Judge.*

LASKER, District Judge:

This case presents a challenge to Connecticut's authority to regulate toys designed for children between the ages of three and seven which present a risk of "choking, aspiration or ingestion" to children under three. The plaintiff, Toy Manufacturers of America, Inc. ("TMA"),1 asserts that regulations promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC") pursuant to the Federal Hazardous Substances Act ("FHSA"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1261-1277 (1982), preempt state authority to regulate the subject. The District Court disagreed and denied a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of a Connecticut statute enacted June 1, 1992, which requires warning labels on toys designed for children between three and seven which pose a danger of choking, aspiration or ingestion because of small parts to children under the age of three. The issue on appeal is whether the Connecticut law is preempted. We hold that it is not, and affirm.

I.

The regulation of health, safety and welfare has traditionally been the province of the states. However, in the past several decades, a number of areas of regulation traditionally controlled by the states such as food and drugs, occupational health and safety, and the environment, have come under federal management. TMA claims that "small parts regulation" is an area over which the federal government has asserted exclusive control under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1261-1277 (1982) ("FHSA" or the "Act").

Where exclusive federal regulation of a subject exists, state laws on the same subject are "without effect."

Article VI of the Constitution provides that the laws of the United States "shall be the supreme Law of the Land; ... any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any state to the Contrary notwithstanding." Art. VI, cl. 2. Thus, since our decision in McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 427, 4 L.Ed. 579 (1819), it has been settled that state law that conflicts with federal law is "without effect."

Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 2608, 2617, 120 L.Ed.2d 407 (1992) (citation omitted).

The Federal Hazardous Substances Act was enacted in 1960 in response to mounting evidence of the dangers, particularly to children, of unlabeled hazardous household products. The Act focuses on consumer products intended for use or packaged in a form suitable for use in the household or by children. The scope of its coverage as to these products is extremely broad. Nevertheless, the Act does not purport to establish a comprehensive federal scheme of regulating hazardous substances found in the household. In fact, the FHSA does not itself ban any items or require any precautions. Instead, it authorizes regulations to be issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC" or "Commission") pursuant to the Act, and sets guidelines to be followed by the CPSC in promulgating those regulations.

The FHSA also permits a system of partial preemption, under which, in an area in which the Commission has not acted, state regulations may supplement the regulations adopted by the CPSC. The Act's preemption provision states:

if ... a requirement is established to protect against a risk of illness or injury associated with a hazardous substance, no State or political subdivision of a State may establish or continue in effect a requirement applicable to such substance and designed to protect against the same risk of illness or injury unless such requirement is identical to the requirement established under such regulations.

15 U.S.C. § 1261 Note § 18(b)(1)(B) (1982). That is, preemption obtains only where a state action regulates the same "hazardous substance" and the same "risk of illness or injury associated with [that] hazardous substance" which a FHSA regulation regulates.

"Hazardous substance" is a term of art in the FHSA. Section 2(f)(1)(D) of the statute defines the phrase to include, among other things, "[a]ny toy or other article intended for use by children which the Secretary by regulation determines, in accordance with section 1262(e) of this title, presents an electrical, mechanical, or thermal hazard." 15 U.S.C. § 1261(f)(1)(D) (1982).

The CPSC adopted the two small parts regulations at issue here--now codified as 16 C.F.R. § 1500.18(a)(9) and 16 C.F.R. § 1501--on June 15, 1979. The FHSA authorizes the promulgation of both banning regulations and labeling regulations; the regulations at issue are banning regulations.

Section 1500.18--titled "Banned toys and other banned articles intended for use by children"--bans the introduction into interstate commerce of a number of toys and other children's articles deemed to pose either a mechanical, thermal, or electrical hazard. 16 C.F.R. § 1500.18 (1992) and 15 U.S.C. § 1263(a) (1982). Subsection 1500.18(a)(9)--the section at issue here--defines as a hazardous substance: "Any toy or other article intended for use by children under 3 years of age which presents a choking, aspiration, or ingestion hazard because of small parts as determined by part 1501 ..." 16 C.F.R. § 1500.18(a)(9) (1992).

Part 1501--titled "METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING TOYS AND OTHER ARTICLES INTENDED FOR USE BY CHILDREN UNDER 3 YEARS OF AGE WHICH PRESENT CHOKING, ASPIRATION, OR INGESTION HAZARDS BECAUSE OF SMALL PARTS" (capitalized in original)--supplements § 1500.18(a)(9). 16 C.F.R. § 1501 (1992). Part 1501 is a descriptive provision only, whose sole function is to describe what is banned by § 1500.18(a)(9):

This Part 1501 describes certain articles that are subject to § 1500.18(a)(9); lists certain articles that are specifically exempted; and provides a test method for determining whether an article is hazardous to children under 3 because it, or one of its components that can be detached or broken off during normal or reasonable foreseeable use, is too small.

16 C.F.R. § 1501.1 (1992).

In determining the preemptive effect of the CPSC's small parts regulations, it is useful to review the history of the CPSC's actions in this area.

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986 F.2d 615, 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 36807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toy-manufacturers-of-america-inc-v-blumenthal-ca2-1993.