Preemption

We will be covering the doctrine of preemption in a few weeks, the rule (derived from the Supremacy Clause of Article VI) that, when federal and state law come into conflict, federal law trumps. The Supreme Court has two very big preemption cases on its docket for the coming Term, Altria v. Good (involving the marketing of cigarettes as "light" or "low tar") and Wyeth v. Levine (concerning the labeling of prescription medications approved by the FDA). In Friday's edition, the New York Times contains a lengthy story on Wyeth, which you can find here.