In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Geier v. American Honda Co. that vehicle manufacturers could not be held liable for delaying the installation of air bags for frontal crash protection, despite the fact that since 1973, government regulators had urged car companies to do so. It was apparent then that the political process — involving the retraction of this regulation in the Nixon administration, the proposed renewal of it in the mid-1980s, and its final adoption for vehicles beginning in the early 1990s — constituted a sufficiently convoluted regulatory process (and one that demonstrated that the regulatory agency was not very keen on requiring an immediate “all air bag” fleet of vehicles) to warrant the holding.

The court stated that auto companies were immune from liability suits for this neglect based upon principles of implied pre-emption. Since Geier was decided, the auto industry has selectively — and often successfully — argued the pre-emption defense in many different types of claims, including lap belt only claims, glass defect cases, stability rollover claims, front seat belt defect cases, roof crush/rollover cases, child safety seat cases, fuel system integrity cases, and air bag defect cases. Literally, hundreds of consumers have been thrown out of court based upon this theory of implied pre-emption. But the legal landscape changed drastically when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Williamson v. Mazda Corp. on Feb. 23.

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