Jonathan Hoffman’s amicus brief was recently recognized as PLAC’s “Featured Amicus Brief, supporting a petition for cert on the issue of whether the Federal Aviation Act preempts state law.
As described by PLAC:
“PLAC submitted an amicus brief in support of defendant’s petition for certiorari in an aviation product liability preemption case.
For over two decades, the lower courts have wrestled with the question whether the Federal Aviation Act and regulations preempt the field as to aviation safety standards. In this case, the Third Circuit rejected field preemption but suggested that the District Court consider conflict preemption instead. The trial court granted summary judgment on conflict preemption, but a different panel reversed on appeal (with one judge dissenting). In so doing, the Third Circuit disregarded the Supreme Court’s recent holdings in PLIVA v. Mensing, 564 U.S. 604 (2011) and Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. v. Bartlett, 570 U.S. 472 (2013). Both cases held that [t]he question for ‘impossibility’ is whether the private party could independently do under federal law what state law requires of it.” In the current matter, the applicable regulations require that any alteration to the design of the airplane, the engine, or the carburetor required prior approval of the FAA. Nevertheless, the Third Circuit held that compliance with state and federal law was not impossible because defendant “has made numerous changes to the type certificate . . ., which the FAA approved in short order”).
PLAC’s brief in support of the defendant supported cert on both field and conflict preemption. The National Association of Manufacturers joined PLAC’s brief.”
(https://www.plac.com/)