City of Columbus v. Ours Garage and Wrecker Service, Inc.

Summary

The Court held that the federal motor-carrier preemption provision does not prevent a State from delegating its preserved safety-regulatory authority to municipalities. Although the statute expressly identifies political subdivisions in the general preemption rule and some exceptions, that omission from the safety exception did not clearly demonstrate an intent to displace the States’ traditional authority to allocate regulatory power between state and local governments. The Court reversed and remanded because it did not decide whether Columbus’s particular tow-truck regulations actually qualify as safety regulations. Justice Scalia, joined by Justice O’Connor, dissenting, would have held that the statutory text plainly excludes municipal safety regulations from the exception.