Federal Occupation Safety and Health Laws

America uses the federal system of governance. The different states make legislation that affects the state alone. There is however the federal law which is an umbrella that covers the entire country. In such a scenario, it is expected for there to be a conflict between the state and federal laws. When this happens, the state laws are overruled by the federal laws, or more accurately put the state laws are preempted by the federal laws. Article VI of the American constitution under the supremacy clause says that in the event of a conflict between state and federal law, the state law shall be preempted.

According to Justice Kennedy’s concurrency, any state law that touched on issues that are concerned with the regulation of workers safety and workers health shall be preempted. There have been cases when the preemption is horizontal. This has been especially so in Occupation Safety and Health Laws. A landmark case that shows this very well is the Stephen Golab Case of 1983. He was an illegal immigrant who had found himself a job in the mines. On the 10th of February, He collapsed and dined in the mines as a result of the fumes he had inhaled.

The Occupation Safety and Health Act, which is a federal responsibility, inspected the mines and fined the company 4855 dollars for safety violations but revised the charge by half later. The state’s attorney however thought more strongly about it. He filed criminal charges. The company ended up parting with 24,000 dollars and 3 of their employees were put behind bars for murder. This case has informed many other lawsuits all over the country. The inference, therefore, is that preemption is both vertical and horizontal. When the supremacy act is enforced then the preemption is vertical and when the state makes a ruling that disagrees with the federal one like in Golab’s case, then that is the state has used preemptive power.