Geier v. American Honda Motor Co.

Geier v. American Honda Motor Company
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 7, 1999 Decided May 22, 2000
Full case name	Alexis Geier, et al., petitioners v. American Honda Motor Company, Inc., et al.
Citations	529 U.S. 861 (more) 120 S. Ct. 1913; 146 L. Ed. 2d 914; 2000 U.S. LEXIS 3425; 68 U.S.L.W. 4425; CCH Prod. Liab. Rep. ¶ 15,795; 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5277; 2000 Daily Journal DAR 5277; 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 2826; 13 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 344
Case history
Prior	Dismissed, (D.D.C. 1997); affirmed, 166 F.3d 1236 (D.C. Cir. 1999); cert. granted, 527 U.S. 1063 (1999).
Holding
The Federal standards for motor vehicle pre-empts tort lawsuits made under stricter state legislations.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Breyer, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, and Kennedy
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg
Laws applied
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act

Geier v. American Honda Motor Company, 529 U.S. 861 (2000), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a federal automobile safety standard pre-empted a stricter state rule.^[1] The Court held that Alexis Geier, who suffered severe injuries in a 1987 Honda Accord, could not sue Honda for failing to install a driver-side airbag – a requirement under District of Columbia tort law but not Federal law – because Federal law pre-empted the District's rule.