# Amicus Curiae Brief — City of New York v. Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade

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URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/brief%3Amicro_IA40386017_2720%3A5

## Record

- **Collection:** Supreme Court brief
- **Document type:** Amicus Curiae Brief
- **Published:** January 1, 2011
- **Citation:** 562 U.S. 1264

## Text

Supreme Court, U.S.
FILED
aes DEC 9 - 2010
\ (o) OFFICE OF THE CLERK
No. 10-618
IN THE

Supreme Court of the Gnited States

Cily OF NEW YORK, et al.,

Petitioners,

v.
METROPOLITAN TAXICAB BOARD OF TRADE, ef al.,

Respondents.

On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE PUBLIC CITIZEN,
INC., INSUPPORT OF PETITIONERS

SCOTT L. NELSON
Counsel of Record
ALLISON M. ZIEVE
PUBLIC CITIZEN

LITIGATION GROUP
1600 20th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 588-1000

snelson@citizen.org
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae

December 2010

— —— —

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ....................0.08. ]
REASONS FOR GRANTING THE WRIT .................. 2

I. The Second Circuit’s Broad Conception of
“Relatedness” Is Directly Contrary to This
Court’s Preemption Jurisprudence and

Il. The Far-Reaching Effects of the Second
Circuit’s Decision Do Not Reflect Any Re-
cognizable Federal Policy and, Indeed,

Conflict With Federal Policy. .............0....00.000065 9

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TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Page(s)

Cases:

Cal. Div. of Labor Standards Enforcement v.
Dillingham Constr., N.A., 519 U.S. 316
ae a daeetuas 4,5,8

Cent. Valley Chrysler-Jeep, Inc. v. Goldstene,

529 F. Supp. 2d 1151 (E.D. Cal. 2007) ................... 8

De Buono v. NYSA-ILA Med. & Clinical
Servs. Fund, 520 U.S. 806 (1999)........................... 5

Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001)...........0.....2.. 5

Engine Mfrs. Ass’n v. S. Coast Air Quality
Regent. Dist. , S41 US. 266 (A004) oo. cccescccccssavessvesse: 7

Green Alliance Taxi Cab Ass’n v. King Coun
ty, 2010 WL 2643369 (W.D. Wash. June
Be seep ete cre eee ae hi inaenaedendenenes 8,9

Metro. Taxicab Bd. of Trade v. City of New
York, 615 F.3a 152 (2d Cir. 2010) ...................... 3, 4

N.Y. State Conf. of Blue Cross & Blue Shield
Plans v. Travelers Ins. Co., 514 U.S. 645

Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U.S. 41
rate ae aay aay cen seacee oak ee vainvsadewins 5

Rush Prudential HMO v. Moran, 536 U.S.

Re ca ag eee aaa ee ce asda vse snabansviwas 5

Statutes and Rules:
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a es Tig a dadacaamnuccadesuciowe 8

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49 U.S.C. § 3290 ita)... 6
49 U.S.C. 3 $2914 s)... ss G&G. i)
S. Ct. FR. ST Bla ccccc cee |
Other:
75 Fed. Reg. 25324 (May 7, ZO1Q)............000000+.05+. ee
Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae,

Metro. Taxicab Bd. of Trade v. City of New

York, No. 09-2901-CV (2d Cir. filed Jan.

15, 2OIO) ....<cccsccocesse es Bee aE. 19

1 |

www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/laws/...............c.cceeceeeeeeeeees

INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE'

Public Citizen, Inc., a national consumer-advocacy
organization founded in 1971, appears on behalf of its
approximately 225,000 members and supporters be-
fore Congress, administrative agencies, and courts on
a wide range of issues and works for enactment and
enforcement of laws protecting consumers, workers,
and the general public. Public Citizen often
represents the interests of its members in litigation
and regularly files amicus curiae briefs in cases in the
United States Supreme Court and the federal appel-
late courts.

Among Public Citizen’s particular concerns is
overbroad invocation of preemption arguments to
override state and local laws that seek to protect con-
sumers, workers, and the public—including laws
aimed at promoting safer, cleaner, and more economi-
cal automobiles. In many instances, as in this case,
such preemption arguments reflect distortions of the
policies and purposes of federal law that create a false
impression of conflict between federal and state law.
Often, the result of judicial acceptance of such overly
broad preemption arguments would be the creation of
regulatory gaps never intended by Congress, as states
and local governments would be disabled from ad-
dressing problems that the federal government has

' Counsel of record for the parties received timely notice of
amicus curiae’s intent to file this brief as required by this
Court’s Rule 37.2(a). Written consents to the filing of the brief
from all parties have been filed with the Clerk. This brief was
not. authored in whole or in part by counsel for a party. No per-
son or entity other than amicus curiae or its counsel made a
monetary contribution to preparation or submission of this brief.

neither addressed itself nor intended to prevent the
states from addressing. In some cases, including this
one, the effect of preemption would be to prevent
states and localities from taking actions that federal
law and policy affirmatively encourage.

In addition, Public Citizen has a longstanding in-
terest in promoting efficient use of energy and discou-
raging excessive consumption of gasoline and other
fossil fuels, which contributes to depletion of (and
higher consumer prices for) scarce natural resources
and is directly linked to unhealthy levels of air pollu-
tion and the discharge of greenhouse gases. The deci-
sion of the court of appeals in this case runs counter
to the broad societal interest in energy conservation
and, more specifically, to the shared interest of both
the federal government and state and local govern-
ments in providing incentives, through means other
than prescriptive regulations, for the adoption of fuel-
efficient vehicles.

REASONS FOR GRANTING THE WRIT

The City of New York, like other local govern-
ments, has long regulated taxicab service. For many
years, the City had policies that encouraged and even
required some cab companies to purchase cars that
were relatively inefficient in their consumption of
fuel. More recently, the City altered its regulations
regarding lease arrangements between taxicab fleet
owners and taxicab drivers to eliminate disincentives
to the purchase of more efficient hybrid vehicles by
fleet owners, and thus to encourage the eventual re-
placement of fuel-inefficient taxis by modern vehicles
that use less gasoline and cause less pollution. ‘The
City acted, however, not by imposing standards re-
quiring that taxicabs meet specified levels of fuel effi-

ciency, but by creating economic incentives for the
purchase of hybrids.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit held that the City’s lease rules were
preempted by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act
(“EPCA”), which authorizes the federal government
to issue regulations requiring vehicles sold in the
United States to meet mandatory average fuel econo-
my standards and provides that a state or local gov-
ernment “may not adopt or enforce a law or regula-
tion related to fuel economy standards or average fuel
economy standards for automobiles covered by an av-
erage fuel economy standard under this chapter.” 49
U.S.C. § 32919(a). The Second Circuit reasoned that
because New York’s lease rules related to the “fuel
economy” of New York’s taxicabs, they were
preempted. See 615 F.3d at 157-58.

By holding that any state or local law broadly re-
lated to “fuel economy” has the prohibited relation-
ship to “fuel economy standards,” the Second Circuit,
took precisely the broad and simplistic approach to
preemption that this Court has repeatedly warned
against in its decisions construing similar preemption
provisions, particularly ERISA’s preemption clause.
The result, as the United States put it in its amicus
curiae brief supporting the City in the Second Circuit,
is one that “it is plain that Congress did not intend.”
Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae 2, Metro.
Taxicab Bd. of Trade v. City of New York, No. 09-
2901-CV (2d Cir. filed Jan. 15, 2010) (“U.S. Br.”). In-
deed, the Second Circuit’s reasoning would broadly
disable state and local governments from taking ac-
tions to create incentives for the purchase of fuel-
efficient vehicles, a result Congress could not possibly

have intended and that, as the City has pointed out,
itself conflicts with federal policies promoting hybrids
and other fuel-efficient cars. The conflict between the
Second Circuit’s preemption analysis and that dic-
tated by this Court’s precedents, together with the
broad potential impact of the court’s reasoning,
strongly counsels in favor of a grant of certiorari in
this case.

I. The Second Circuit’s Broad Conception of
“Relatedness” Is Directly Contrary to This
Court’s Preemption Jurisprudence and
Disregards Critical Statutory Language.

The court of appeals treated the preemption ques-
tion in this case as one that required only a rote appli-
cation of what the court apparently saw as clear sta-
tutory language. According to the Second Circuit, the
words “related to” in EPCA’s preemption clause cover
all circumstances where “the challenged law contains

a ‘reference’ to the preempted subject matter or

makes the existence of the preempted subject matter

‘essential to the law’s operation.’” 615 F.3d at 156

(quoting Cal. Div. of Labor Standards Enforcement v.

Dillingham Constr., N.A., 519 U.S. 316, 324-25

(1997)). Because New York’s taxicab lease rules affect

fuel economy, the court went on to hold, they neces-

sarily refer to or depend on the existence of fuel econ-
omy standards.

Such a broad construction of “related to” is direct-
ly contrary to this Court’s repeated warnings, in the
context of ERISA, that preemption provisions based
on the “relatedness” of the subjects of federal and
state law cannot be given such sweeping effect. De-
spite its early recognition of the “expansive sweep” of
the ERISA provision preempting state laws that “re-

en

late to any employee benefit plan,” 29 U.S.C.
§ 1144(a), e.g., Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U.S.
41, 47 (1987), this Court has emphasized that the very
expansiveness of the concept of “relatedness” is a
source of ambiguity and a reason to exercise caution
in construing the scope of preemption. As the Court
explained in New York State Conference of Blue Cross
& Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Insurance Co., “lilf
‘relate to’ were taken to extend to the furthest stretch
of its indeterminacy, then for all practical purposes
pre-emption would never run its course ....” 514 U.S.
645, 655 (1995).

Thus, this Court has emphasized that the “relate
to” preemption language used in ERISA (and also in
EPCA) cannot be approached with “uncritical literal-
ism.” Id. at 656; accord Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S.
141, 147 (2001); Dillingham, 519 U.S. at 325. Instead,
the Court has repeatedly begun its analysis of the
scope of ERISA preemption with the admonition that
“the starting presumption that Congress does not in-
tend to supplant state law” applies. Travelers, 514
U.S. at 654; accord Rush Prudential HMO v. Moran,
536 U.S. 355, 365 (2002); De Buono v. NYSA-ILA
Med. & Clinical Servs. Fund, 520 U.S. 806, 813
(1997). And because of the indeterminacy of the statu-
tory language, the search for the requisite clear and
manifest congressional intention to supplant state law
requires consideration of both “the objectives of the
[federal] statute” and “the nature of the effect of state
law” on the preempted subject-matter. Dillingham,
519 U.S. at 325 (citations omitted).

Here, the Second Circuit overlooked the surest in-
dication of the objective of the federal statute: the
law's own language. EPCA’s preemption clause does

6

not, as the Second Circuit’s reasoning suggests, apply
generally to any state or local law that relates to fuel
economy, but much more specifically to laws that are
related to “fuel economy standards or average fuel
economy standards.” 49 U.S.C. § 32919(a) (emphasis
added). Critically, by making preemption turn on rela-
tedness not simply to the broad subject of “fuel econ-
omy,” but to “fuel economy standards,” Congress
used terms of art explicitly defined in the statute:
EPCA’s definition section provides that “‘average fuel
economy standard’ means a performance standard
specifying a minimum level of average fuel economy
applicable to a manufacturer in a model year.” Id.
§ 32901(a)(6).

Congress's deliberate use of this defined term in
establishing the scope of EPCA preemption makes
clear that the policy it was pursuing was not broad
preemption of anything relating to fuel economy.
Congress had a narrower objective: protection of ex:
clusive federal authority to establish performance
standards specifying minimum fuel economy levels
that automobile manufacturers must meet. Only laws
that relate to such standards are preempted by EPCA.

When the focus is properly placed on whether a
state or local law relates to a fuel economy standard,
the magnitude of the Second Circuit’s deviation from
this Court’s admonition that courts exercise caution
in construing preemption clauses based on “related-
ness” becomes apparent. Although the City’s taxicab
leasing regulations may “relate to” fuel economy, they
are not themselves mandatory performance standards
requiring manufacturers to achieve minimum levels
of fuel economy, they do not refer to such mandatory
performance standards, and mandatory performance

~

standards are not somehow essential to the operation
of the City’s rules. Indeed, the differential lease rates
adopted by the City have nothing to do with such
standards save that they both in some sense concern
fuel efficiency. The City’s rules merely affect the in-
centives of taxicab fleets to make voluntary purchases
from among the broad range of vehicles available in
the marketplace (all of which presumably satisfy ap-
plicable federal fuel efficiency standards),

This Court acknowledged the substantial differ-
ence between laws that create voluntary incentive
programs and laws that are (or relate to) standards in
Engine Manufacturers Ass’n v. South Coast Air Quali-
ty Management District, 541 U.S. 246 (2004). There,
the Court emphasized that the term “standard” en-
compasses “[a] command, accompanied by sanctions”
determining the characteristics of vehicles that may
permissibly be purchased or sold on the market. Jd. at
255. Put another way, the Court identified “stan-
dards” with “criteria” with which vehicles must comp-
ly. Id. at 253. The Court disclaimed any holding that
the statute at issue there (which preempted state or
local enforcement of vehicle emission “standards” dif-
ferent from federal standards) would preempt “volun-
tary incentive programs.” Jd. at 258. Such programs,
the Court stressed, “are significantly different from
command-and-control regulation.” Id.

Here, unlike in South Coast, the statute at issue
actually provides an express definition of the key term
on which preemption hinges—‘“average fuel economy
standard”—and that definition underscores the dis-
tinction recognized in South Coast between mandato-
ry standards and incentive programs. By ignoring the
express statutory language indicating the narrowness

8

of the scope of preemption and instead embarking on
the open-ended project of determining whether the
City’s rules “related to” fuel economy generally, the
Second Circuit strayed far from this Court’s command
that in construing the scope of “relatedness” preemp-
tion clauses, courts avoid taking the statutory lan-
guage to the “furthest stretch of its indeterminacy,”
Travelers, 514 U.S. at 655, and instead hold a state
law preempted only when the state law runs contrary
to Congress’s manifest objectives. Dillingham, 519
U.S. at 325.

The proper analysis of EPCA’s preemptive scope is
exemplified by the decision in Central Valley Chrysler-
Jeep, Inc. v. Goidstene, 529 F. Supp. 2d 1151 (E.D.
Cal. 2007), addressing whether California emissions
standards, which had effects on fuel economy as well,
were preempted by EPCA. Consistent with the pre-
sumption against preemption and EPCA’s language
and objectives, the court determined that “EPCA’s
express preemption of state regulations related to mi-
leage standards [should] be construed as narrowly as
the plain language of the law permits,” and that it en-
compassed “state regulations that are explicitly aimed
at the establishment of fuel economy standards, or
that are the de facto equivalent of mileage regula-
tion.” Jd. at 1175.’ Similarly, in Green Alliance Taxi
Cab Ass’n v. King County, 2010 WL 2643369 (W.D.
Wash. June 29, 2010), the court held that a program

* The court also mentioned a third category of preempted
regulations, not relevant here: emissions regulations that affect
mileage and “that do not meet the requirements established by
the Clean Air Act for waiver of preemption under [42 U.S.C.
§ 7543].” Id.

9

providing voluntary incentives for the purchase of hy-
brid vehicles by taxicab companies was not preempted
because “only a mandate can be a legal regulation ‘re-
lated to’ fuel economy standards and thus preempted
by EPCA.” Id. at *5. The Second Circuit’s decision, by
contrast, cannot be squared with the preemption
principles set forth in this Court’s opinions or with
the language of EPCA.

Il. The Far-Reaching Effects of the Second
Circuit’s Decision Do Not Reflect Any Re-
cognizable Federal Policy and, Indeed,
Conflict With Federal Policy.

The Second Circuit’s view that EPCA preempts
any state or local law that affects, or reflects any con-
cern regarding, automobile fuel economy, has re-
markably broad implications. Most directly, the
court’s reasoning would threaten preemption of any
economic regulation of the City’s taxicab industry
that seeks to promote energy conservation and com-
bat air pollution by providing incentives for the pur-
chase of hybrid or other fuel-efficient vehicles by taxi-
cab fleets.

As the United States pointed out below, the effect
of preemption in this case is to disable the City even
from removing disincentives to hybrid vehicle pur-
chases that are the result of the City’s preexisting
lease-rate regulations. Those rules effectively placed
all the fuel costs attributable to the purchase of less
efficient vehicles on taxicab drivers and thus encour-
aged fleet owners to purchase cars that are less ex-
pensive to buy but more expensive to operate because
of their relatively low gas mileage. See U.S. Br. 2-3. As
the brief of the United States stated, “The City should
not be held to have violated federal law when it

10

sought to modify the consequences of its earlier regu-
lations.” Jd. at 3.

Moreover, as the United States also observed be-
low, any economic regulation of taxicab lease rates
will inevitably have some impact on fleet fuel econo-
my, whether positive or negative. If, as the Second
Circuit’s reasoning suggests, any such effect has a
prohibited “relation” to fuel economy standards, it is
not clear what the City can permissibly do in this area
(short of dismantling its entire regulatory scheme).
But as the United States’ brief pointed out, there is
absolutely no indication that Congress ever would
have intended EPCA’s prohibition on meddling by
states and localities with fuel economy standards to
have such a far-reaching effect on economic regulation
of the taxicab industry, a matter traditionally of local
concern:

Although Congressional intent cannot be deter-
mined with certainty in other settings, it is plain
that Congress did not intend—by establishing
regulation of average fuel economy standards
and new motor vehicle emission standards—to
assert general federal control over the regulation
of taxi services, an area that had been the subject
of pervasive local regulation for decades prior to
passage of the Clean Air Act and EPCA in the
1960s and 1970s. New York City taxicab regula-
tions have long restricted vehicle choices and
equipment, with a consequent impact on the
overall fuel economy and emissions of taxi fleets.
And the City has also long regulated the econom-
ic relationship between taxicab fleet owners and
drivers. It has never been suggested that Con-
gress meant to preempt all such vehicle restric-

Li

tions and lease rate setting, and there is no clear
basis for concluding that the regulations at issue
in this case at issue crossed a line established by
federal law.

U.S. Br. 2.

Moreover, the potential effects of the Second Cir-
cuit’s decision are by no means limited to its unwar-
ranted interference with taxicab regulation. The
court’s view that states and localities are preempted
from taking actions that have the effect or objective of
encouraging the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles or
that otherwise affect the overall fuel economy of the
mix of vehicles that buyers purchase cannot logically
be confined to regulation of taxicabs. After all, EP-
CA’s preemption clause applies to laws related to fuel
economy standards “for automobiles,” not just taxi-
cabs. 49 U.S.C. § 32919(a) (emphasis added). The
Second Circuit’s reasoning thus extends to any state
or local law that affects fuel economy by creating in-
centives for the purchase of more fuel-efficient ve-
hicles by consumers or businesses of any kind.

As the petition for certiorari explains, there are
literally hundreds of state and local laws that provide
such incentives. Pet. for Cert. 24-28. The federal gov-
ernment itself promotes such state and local efforts
not only through legislation that specifically encou-
rages them (see id. at 21-23), but also by, among other
things, providing a comprehensive list of those incen-
tives to allow consumers to take maximum advantage
of their benefits. See www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/laws/.
It is nothing short of fanciful to suggest that such
state and local laws interfere with EPCA’s policies or
fall within the scope of its preemption clause, but that

is the necessary implication of the Second Circuit’s

decision.

Energy conservation and combating the environ-
mental effects of fossil-fuel consumption are critical
national priorities. Increasing the use of fuel-efficient
vehicles is an essential step in pursuing those priori-
ties. Federal fuel economy standards are one means of
decreasing gasoline consumption, limiting our re-
liance on foreign energy sources of increasingly uncer-
tain reliability, and reducing air pollution and green-
house gas emissions. See 75 Fed. Reg. 25324, 25326-27
(May 7, 2010) (establishing new corporate average
fuel economy standards). Equally important, however,
is encouraging vehicle buyers to select fuel-efficient
vehicles from within the “range of vehicle choices”
(id. at 25324) permitted by those standards. State and
local efforts to provide such encouragement—such as
the lease rules at issue in this case—complement the
objectives of the federal standards without conflicting
with them, referring to them or relying on them in
any prohibited way, or, indeed, affecting the federal
standards at all.

Tellingly, the federal government argued below
that the City’s rules and similar state and local laws
do not in any way conflict with federal law or policy
and that preempting such laws simply because they
have an effect on fuel economy would “create a regu-
latory void that Congress surely did not contemplate.”
U.S. Br. 12. Nonetheless, the Second Circuit issued a
decision that, in the guise of a wooden application of
statutory language aimed at vindicating the suprema-
cy of federal law, poses a potentially devastating
threat to vital national interests in addition to inter-
fering with the exercise of traditional powers of state

and local governments. The far-reaching negative ef

fects of the Second Circuit’s decision, together with
the opinion’s disregard of the teaching of this Court’s
decisions limiting the effect of preemption clauses us-
ing the same language at issue here, fully justify re-
view of this important case.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the petition for a writ of

certiorari should be granted.

Respectfully submitted,

SCOTT L. NELSON

Counsel of Record

ALLISON M. ZIEVE

PUBLIC CITIZEN LITIGATION

GROUP

1600 20th Street NW

Washington, DC 20009

(202) 588-1000

Attorneys for Amicus Curiae

December 2010

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/brief%3Amicro_IA40386017_2720%3A5. Public record. Not legal advice.