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The Supreme Court unanimously held December 3, 2002 that the Federal Boat Safety Act (“FBSA”) does not preempt state common-law tort actions based on an alleged duty to install propeller guards on recreational motorboats. The Court held that the FBSA does not expressly preempt such claims because the statute’s preemption provision is “specific and detailed,” whereas its savings provision is “general” in its preservation of “liability at common law.” Moreover, such a reading does not produce “anomalous results” because Congress could rationally decide not to preempt common-law claims that “necessarily perform an important remedial role in compensating accident victims.” The Court further held that the Coast Guard’s decision not to regulate propeller guards does not impliedly preempt propeller-guard claims because that decision “reveals only a judgment that the available data did not meet the FBSA’s ‘stringent’ criteria for federal regulation” and does “not convey an ‘authoritative’ message of a federal policy against propeller guards.” Finally, the Court held that the FBSA does “not so completely occupy the field of safety regulation of recreational boats as to foreclose state common-law remedies.” This decision is the latest in a series of recent preemption rulings from the Court and is important to all businesses facing product liability claims involving a federal safety-regulation backdrop.