Hencely v. Fluor Corp. · ¶93

The preemption claim in this case rests on a different basis. The federal interest at stake is not the performance of a procurement contract but the interest in making foreign- affairs and strategic military decisions without state interference. That interest did not figure in Boyle's preemption analysis. As the Court notes, the claim in Boyle did not involve combatant activities. Ante, at 38–39. It concerned a helicopter crash off the coast of Virginia. Although the plaintiff was a Marine and the helicopter was designed for military use, the Court treated the contract under which the helicopter was procured like any other government contract. If the helicopter had been designed and procured for a civilian agency, the Court's analysis would have been the same.

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