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6 - Preemption

from Part II - Conduct Controls: Welfare and Pension Plans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2024

Peter J. Wiedenbeck
Affiliation:
Washington University School of Law
Brendan S. Maher
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University School of Law
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Summary

ERISA preemption is broad and bewildering. The statute’s language is of little help and the Supreme Court has struggled to identify intelligible extra-textual limits on ERISA’s preemptive reach. ERISA’s express preemption exerts force largely through the "relate to" clause, which broadly preempts all laws that bear too closely on employee benefit plans; the savings clause, which saves from preemption laws that regulate banking, securities, or insurance; and the deemer clause, which prevents states from regulating plans as insurers. ERISA also impliedly preempts state laws that conflict with its provisions or frustrate its objectives. More fruitful than parsing the Court’s decisions is to focus on the categories of laws the Court has found preempted, namely, laws affecting the benefits plans must offer, laws affecting the uniform administrative practice of plans, and laws supplementing ERISA’s remedies. The coherence of the Court’s jurisprudence might be improved were it to read ERISA’s express preemption provisions as simple field preemption, with legitimate state regulation in fields outside of employee benefits to be superseded only by the application of standard principles of conflict and obstacle preemption.

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ERISA Principles , pp. 193 - 224
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Preemption
  • Peter J. Wiedenbeck, Washington University School of Law, Brendan S. Maher, Texas A&M University School of Law
  • Book: ERISA Principles
  • Online publication: 15 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316711507.011
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  • Preemption
  • Peter J. Wiedenbeck, Washington University School of Law, Brendan S. Maher, Texas A&M University School of Law
  • Book: ERISA Principles
  • Online publication: 15 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316711507.011
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preemption
  • Peter J. Wiedenbeck, Washington University School of Law, Brendan S. Maher, Texas A&M University School of Law
  • Book: ERISA Principles
  • Online publication: 15 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316711507.011
Available formats
×