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California's Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act And American Preemption Doctrine, Libby Adler

Libby S. Adler

This article discusses the 2003 decision of the United States Supreme Court American Insurance Association v. Garamendi in which five members of the Court, led by Justice Souter, found that California's Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act of 1999 (HVIRA) "interferes with the National Government's conduct of foreign relations" and is therefore preempted. The article explains HVIRA and situates it in the larger context of contemporary efforts at restitution for wrongs associated with the Holocaust. It argues that the Court purported to find a conflict between federal and state law, but that the federal “law” with which state law “conflicted” was …