Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company

Decided March 1, 2016. Anthony McLeod Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 14-181 · 577 U.S. 312 (2016) · Cited 173 times

Holding

ERISA pre-empts Vermont's statute as applied to ERISA plans.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–2.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Egelhoff v. Egelhoff Ex Rel. Breiner · 532 U.S. 141 (2001)
• New York State Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Insurance · 514 U.S. 645 (1995)
• De Buono v. NYSA-ILA Medical & Clinical Services Fund Ex Rel. Bowers · 520 U.S. 806 (1997)
• California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement v. Dillingham Construction, N. A. · 519 U.S. 316 (1997)
• Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon · 498 U.S. 133 (1990)
• Fort Halifax Packing Co. v. Coyne · 482 U.S. 1 (1987)
• Massachusetts v. Morash · 490 U.S. 107 (1989)
• Chamber of Commerce of United States of America v. Whiting · 563 U.S. 582 (2011)
• Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. · 463 U.S. 85 (1983)
• United States v. Lopez · 514 U.S. 549 (1995)
• Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr · 518 U.S. 470 (1996)
• Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Massachusetts · 471 U.S. 724 (1985)
• United States v. Morrison · 529 U.S. 598 (2000)
• Wyeth v. Levine · 555 U.S. 555 (2009)
• Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. · 451 U.S. 504 (1981)
• Gonzales v. Raich · 545 U.S. 1 (2005)
• New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann · 285 U.S. 262 (1932)
• Boggs v. Boggs · 520 U.S. 833 (1997)
• Oneok, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc. · 575 U.S. 373 (2015)
• Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm'n · 576 U.S. 787 (2015)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn. · 592 U.S. 80 (2020)
• Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust · 579 U.S. 115 (2016)
• Intel Corp. Investment Policy Comm. v. Sulyma · 589 U.S. 178 (2020)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

Anthony McLeod Kennedy’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2016). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).