The Massachusetts Burma Law was a law enacted in 1996 by the Massachusetts legislature limiting state entities from purchasing services from companies doing business with Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

 (Burma). A "restricted trade" list was compiled by the Commonwealth

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

, which included 34 members of the National Foreign Trade Council

National Foreign Trade Council

Founded in 1914, the National Foreign Trade Council is the oldest and largest trade association advocating an open, rules-based international trade system. It serves hundreds of member companies in activities encompassing international trade policy, international tax policy, human resources, and...

 (NFTC). The NFTC filed suit against then-Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance, Stephen Crosby, in Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council

Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council

Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States used the preemption doctrine to strike down the Massachusetts Burma Law, a law that effectively prohibited Massachusetts' governmental agencies from buying goods and services from...

, , arguing that the Massachusetts law infringed upon the federal government's foreign affairs and foreign commerce powers, and that it was already pre-empted by federal law. Massachusetts was also charged with violating the Supremacy Clause

Supremacy Clause

Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes as "the supreme law of the land." The text decrees these to be the highest form of law in the U.S...

 of the U.S. Constitution. The NFTC won the case with U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter ruling that "the state Act is preempted, and its application unconstitutional, under the Supremacy Clause." The law was thus nullified.

See also

• Federalism
  Federalism
  Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
  
  
• Supremacy Clause
  Supremacy Clause
  Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes as "the supreme law of the land." The text decrees these to be the highest form of law in the U.S...
  
  
• National Foreign Trade Council
  National Foreign Trade Council
  Founded in 1914, the National Foreign Trade Council is the oldest and largest trade association advocating an open, rules-based international trade system. It serves hundreds of member companies in activities encompassing international trade policy, international tax policy, human resources, and...
  
  
• Massachusetts
  Massachusetts
  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...