Seen in a wire service story:
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York’s law — the first of its kind in the country — interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.
The law was passed after thousands of passengers were stranded aboard airplanes for up to 10 hours on several JetBlue Airways flights at Kennedy International Airport on Valentine’s Day last year. They complained they were deprived of food and water and that toilets overflowed. A month later, hundreds more passengers of other airlines were stranded aboard planes at JFK after a daylong ice storm.[...]
The court said that while the goals of the law were “laudable” and the circumstances prompting its adoption “deplorable,” only the federal government has the authority to pass such regulations.
“If New York’s view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel,” the court wrote.
I agree with the ruling. For concerns that span multiple states, regulatory authority rests with the federal government.
While I’m definitely not a fan of excessive regulation, I also think that in many respects the federal government has in the past few years shirked its responsibility of providing even the bare bones protection against the worst excesses of big business I’d reluctantly tolerate. Imprisoning folks on a grounded jet for hours falls in the category of “worst excesses”.