ENGINE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION ET AL. v. SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT ET AL.
No. 02-1343
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 14, 2004—Decided April 28, 2004
541 U.S. 246
Solicitor General Olson argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the brief were Assistant Attorney General Sansonetti, Deputy Solicitor General Hungar, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Clark, Jeffrey P. Minear, Greer S. Goldman, John A. Bryson, and R. Justin Smith.
Seth P. Waxman argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief for respondent South Coast Air Quality Management District were C. Boyden Gray, Jonathan E. Nuechterlein, Luke A. Sobota, Daniel P. Selmi, Fran M. Layton, and Barbara Baird. Gail Ruderman Feuer and
JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.
Respondent South Cоast Air Quality Management District (District) is a political subdivision of California responsible for air pollution control in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and parts of surrounding counties that make up the South Coast Air Basin. It enacted six Fleet Rules that generally prohibit the purchase or lease by various public and private
I
The District is responsible under state law for developing and implementing a “сomprehensive basinwide air quality management plan” to reduce emission levels and thereby achieve and maintain “state and federal ambient air quality standards.”
The Fleet Rules contain detailеd prescriptions regarding the types of vehicles that fleet operators must purchase or lease when adding or replacing fleet vehicles. Four of the Rules (1186.1, 1192, 1193, and 1196) require the purchase or lease of “alternative-fuel vehicles,”1 and the other two
In August 2000, petitioner Engine Manufacturers Association sued the District and its officials, also respondents, claiming that the Fleet Rules are pre-empted by
The Ninth Circuit affirmed on the reasoning of the District Court. 309 F. 3d 550 (2002). We granted certiorari. 539 U. S. 914 (2003).
II
Section 209(a) of the CAA states:
“No State or any political subdivision thereof shall adopt or attempt to enfоrce any standard relating to the control of emissions from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines subject to this part. No State shall require certification, inspection, or any other approval relating to the control of emissions ... as condition precedent to the initial retail sale, titling (if any), or registration of such motor vehicle, motor vehicle engine, or equipment.”
42 U. S. C. § 7543(a) .
The District Court‘s determination that this express pre-emption provision did not invalidate the Fleet Rules hinged on its interpretation of the word “standard” to include only regulations that compel manufacturers to meet specified emission limits. This interpretation of “standard” in turn caused the court to draw a distinction between purchase restrictions (not pre-empted) and sale restrictions (pre-empted). Neither the manufacturer-specific interpretation of “standard” nor the resulting distinction between purchase and sale restrictions finds support in the text of § 209(a) or the structure of the CAA.
“Statutory construction must begin with the language employed by Congress and the assumption that the ordinary meaning of that language accurately expresses the legislative purpose.” Park ‘N Fly, Inc. v. Dollar Park & Fly, Inc., 469 U. S. 189, 194 (1985). Today, as in 1967 when § 209(a) became law, “standard” is defined as that which “is estab-
Respondents, like the courts below, engraft onto this meaning of “standard” a limiting component, defining it as only “[a] production mandat[e] that require[s] manufacturers to ensure that the vehicles they produce have particular emissions characteristics, whether individually or in the aggregate.” Brief for Respondent South Coast Air Quality Management District 13 (emphases added). This confuses standards with the means of enforcing standards. Manufacturers (or purchasers) can be made responsible for ensuring that vehicles comply with emission standards, but the standards themselves are separate from those enforcement techniques. While standards target vehicles or engines, standard-enforcement efforts that are proscribed by § 209 can be directed to manufacturers or purchasers.
The distinction between “standards,” on the one hand, and methods of standard enforcement, on the other, is borne out in the provisions immediately following § 202. These separate provisions enforce thе emission criteria—i. e., the § 202 standards. Section 203 prohibits manufacturers from selling any new motor vehicle that is not covered by a “certificate of conformity.”
That a standard is a standard even when not enforced through manufacturer-directed regulation can be seen in Congress‘s use of the term in another portion of the CAA. As the District Court recognized,
Respondents contend that their qualified meaning of “standard” is necessary to prevent § 209(a) from pre-empting “far too much” by “encompass[ing] a broad range of state-level clean-air initiatives” such as voluntary incentive pro-
In addition to having no basis in the text of the statute, treating sales restrictions and purchase restrictions differently for pre-emption purposes would make no sense. The manufacturer‘s right to sell federally aрproved vehicles is meaningless in the absence of a purchaser‘s right to buy them. It is true that the Fleet Rules at issue here cover only certain purchasers and certain federally certified vehicles, and thus do not eliminate all demand for covered vehicles. But if one State or political subdivision may enact such rules, then so may any other; and the end result would undo Congress‘s carefully calibrated regulatory scheme.
A command, accompanied by sanctions, that certain purchasers may buy only vehicles with particular emission characteristics is as much an “attempt to enforce” a “standard” as a command, accompanied by sanctions, that a certain percentage of a manufacturer‘s sales volume must consist of such vehicles. We decline to read into § 209(a) a purchase/sale distinction that is not to be found in the text of § 209(a) or the structure of the CAA.
III
The dissent expresses many areas of disagreement with our interpretation, but this should not obscure its agreement with our answer to the question “whether these local Fleet Rules escape pre-emption ... because they address the purchase of vehicles, rather than their manufacture or sale.” Supra, at 249. The dissent joins us in answering “no.” See post, at 262-263 (opinion of SOUTER, J.). It reaches a differ-
As to the first point: The language of § 209(a) is categorical. It is (as we have discussed) impossible to find in it an exception for standards imposed through purchase restrictions rather than directly upon manufacturers; it is even more inventive to discover an exception for only that subcategory of standards-imposed-through-purchase-restrictions that does not coerce manufacture. But even if one accepts that invention, one cannot conclude that these “provisos” save the day. For if a vehicle of the mandated type were commercially available, thus eliminating application of the proviso, the need to sell vehicles to persons governed by the Rule would effectively coerce manufacturers into meeting the artificially created demand. To say, as the dissent does, that this would be merely the consequence of “market demand and free competition,” post, at 263, is fanciful. The demand is a demand, not generated by the market but compelled by the Rules, which in turn effectively compels production. To think that the Rules are invalid until such time as one manufacturer makes a compliant vehicle available, whereupon they become binding, seems to us quite bizarre.
The dissent objects to our interpretive method, which neither invokes the “presumption against preemption” to determine the scope of pre-emption nor delves into legislative history. Post, at 260-261. Application of those methods, on which not all Members of this Court agree, demonstrably makes no difference to resolution of the principal question, which the dissent (after applying them) answers the same as we. As for the additional question that the dissent reaches, we think the same is true: The textual obstacles to the strained interpretation that would validate the Rules by rea-
The dissent next charges that our interpretation attributes carelessness to Congress because § 246 mandates fleet purchasing restrictions, but does so without specifying “notwithstanding” § 209(a). Post, at 264. That addition might have been nice, but hardly seems necessary. It is obvious, after all, that the principal sales restrictions against which § 209(a) is directed are those requiring compliance with state-imposed standards. What § 246 mandates are fleet purchase restrictions under federal standards designed precisely for federally required clean-fuel fleet vehicle programs—which рrograms, in turn, must be federally approved as meeting detailed federal specifications. It is not surprising that a “notwithstanding” § 209(a) did not come to mind. Far from casting doubt upon our interpretation, § 246
Finally, the dissent says that we should “admit” that our opinion pre-empts voluntary incentive programs. Post, at 265-266. Voluntary programs are not at issue in this case, and are significantly different from command-and-control regulation. Suffice it to say that nothing in the present opinion nеcessarily entails pre-emption of voluntary programs. It is at least arguable that the phrase “adopt or attempt to enforce any standard” refers only to standards that are enforceable—a possibility reinforced by the fact that the prohibition is imposed only on entities (States and political subdivisions) that have power to enforce.
IV
The courts below held all six of the Fleet Rules to be entirely outside the pre-emptive reach of § 209(a) based on reasoning that does not withstand scrutiny. In light of the principles articulated above, it appears likely that at least certain aspects of the Fleet Rules are pre-empted. For example, the District may have attempted to enforce CARB‘s ULEV, SULEV, and ZEV standards when, in Rule 1194, it required 50% of new passenger-car and medium-duty-vehicle purchases by private airport-shuttle van operators to “meet ULEV, SULEV, or ZEV emission standards” after July 1, 2001, and 100% to meet those standards after July 1, 2002.7 See Rules 1194(d)(2)(A)-(B), App. 62.
It does not necessarily follow, however, that the Fleet Rules are pre-empted in toto. We have not addressed a
The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE SOUTER, dissenting.
The Court holds that preemption by the Clean Air Act, 77 Stat. 392, as amended,
I
So far as it cоncerns this case, § 209(a) of the Act provides that “[n]o State or any political subdivision thereof shall adopt or attempt to enforce any standard relating to the control of emissions from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines subject to [Title II of the Act].”
First, “[i]n all pre-emption cases, and particularly in those [where] Congress has legislated ... in a field which the States have traditionally occupied, we start with the assumption that the historic police powers of the States were not to be superseded by the Federal Act unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.” Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr, 518 U. S. 470, 485 (1996) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Wisconsin Public Intervenor v. Mortier, 501 U. S. 597, 605 (1991) (applying presumption against preemption to a local regulation). The pertinence of this presumption against federal preemption is clear enough from the terms of the Act itself: § 101 states that “air pollution prevention (that is, the reduction or elimination, through any measures, of the amount of pollutants produced or created at the source) and air pollution control at its source is the primary responsibility of States and local governments.”
Second, legislative history should inform interpretive choice, and the legislative history of this preemption provision shows that Congress‘s purpose in passing it was to stop States from imposing regulatory requirements that directly limited what manufacturers could sell. During the hearings leading up to the 1967 amendments, “[t]he auto industry ... was adamant that the nature of their manufacturing mechanism required a single national standard in order to eliminate undue economic strain on the industry.” S. Rep. No. 403, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., 33 (1967). Auto manufacturers sought to safeguard “[t]he ability of those engaged in the manufacture of automobiles to obtain clear and consistent answers concerning emission controls,” and to prevent “a chaotic situation from developing in interstate commerce in new motor vehicles.” H. R. Rep. No. 728, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., 21 (1967). Cf. Air Pollution Control, Hearings on S. 306 before a Special Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Senate Committee on Public Works, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 91 (1965) (Sen. Muskie) (“Do you think a given manufacturer could produce automobiles meeting 50 standards?“). Congress was not responding to concerns about varying regional appetites for whatever vehicle models the manufacturers did produce; it was addressing the industry‘s fear that States would bar manufacturers from selling engines that failed to meet specifications that might be different in each State.3
On this permissible reading of the 1967 amendments, § 209(a) has no preemptive application to South Coast‘s fleet purchase requirement. The National Government took over the direct regulation of manufacturers’ design specifications addressing tailpipe emissions, and disabled States (the California exception aside, see n. 3, supra) from engaging in the same project. The “standards” that § 209(a) preempts, accordingly, are production mandates imposed directly on manufacturers as a condition of sale. Section 209(a) simрly does not speak to regulations that govern a vehicle buyer‘s choice between various commercially available options.
This is not to say that every conceivable purchase restriction would be categorically free from preemption. A state law prohibiting any purchase by any buyer of any vehicle that failed to meet novel, state-specified emissions criteria would have the same effect as direct regulation of car manufacturers, and would be preempted by § 209(a) as an “attempt to enforce [a] standard relating to the control of emissions
In sum, I am reading “standard” in a practical way that keeps the Act‘s preemption of standards in tune with Congress‘s object in providing for preemption, which was to prevent the States from forcing manufacturers to produce engines with particular characteristics as a legal condition of sale. The majority‘s approach eliminates this consideration of legislative purposes, as well as the presumption against preemption, by acting as though anything that could possibly be described as a standard must necessarily be a “standard” for the purposes of the Act: a standard is a standard is a standard.4 The majority reveals its misalliance with Ger-
II
Reading the statute this way not only does a better job of honoring preemption principles consistently with congressional intent, but avoids some difficulties on the majority‘s contrary interpretation. To begin with, the Court‘s broad definition of an “‘attempt to enforce any standard relating to the control of emissions,‘” ante, at 252, renders superfluous the second sentence of § 209(a), which provides that “[n]o State shall require certification, inspection, or any other approval relating to the control of emissions from any new motor vehicle ... as condition precedent to the initial retail sale, titling (if any), or registration of such motor vehicle,”
Next, on the majority‘s broad interpretation of “standard,” Congress would seem to have been careless in drafting a critical section of the Act. In the one clear instance of which we are aware in which the Act authorizes States to enact laws that would otherwise be preempted by § 209, Congress expressly provided that the authorization is effective notwithstanding that preemption section. See
Finally, the Court suggests that both voluntary incentive programs, ante, at 254-255, and internal state purchasing decisions, ante, at 258-259, may well be permissible on its reading of § 209(a). These suggestions are important in avoiding apparent implausibility in the majority‘s position; if a State were said to be barred even from deciding to run a cleaner fleet than the National Government required, it would take an airtight argument to convince anyone that Congress could have meant such a thing. But it is difficult, when actually applying the majority‘s expansive sense of forbidden “standard,” to explain how the specification оf emissions characteristics in a State‘s internal procurement guidelines could escape being considered an impermissible “adopt[ion of a] standard,”
III
These objections to the Court‘s interpretation are not, to be sure, dispositive, standing alone. They call attention to untidy details, and rightly understood legislation can be untidy: statutes can be unsystematic, redundant, and fuzzy about drawing lines. As a purely textual matter, both the majority‘s reading and mine have strengths and weaknesses. The point is that the tie breakers cut in favor of sustaining the South Coast Fleet Rules. My reading adheres more closely to the legislative history of § 209(a). It takes proper account of the fact that the Fleet Rules with this commercial availability condition do not require manufacturers, even indirectly, to produce a new kind of engine. And, most importantly, my reading adheres to the well-established presumption against preemption.