William Tong, Attorney General of Connecticut v. Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority, et al.

Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority (“Authority”) is a public instrumentality and political subdivision of the State of Connecticut created by legislation to operate Tweed-New Haven Airport (“Airport”), which is located on the border of the City of New Haven (“City”) and the Town of East Haven, Connecticut (“Town”). In 2009, the City, the Town and the Authority entered into an agreement limiting the length of a runway at the Airport to 5,600 linear feet. The agreement called for the state legislature to codify the runway length, which it did that same year by enacting Conn. Gen. Stat. § 15-120j(c) (the “Tweed-NH statute”). Six years later, the Authority and the City (collectively, “Respondents”) brought a declaratory judgment action in federal court against the State claiming that the statute was preempted by various federal laws and therefore unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause. The State filed a motion to dismiss challenging Respondents’ standing on the grounds that political subdivisions are barred from suing their creator States under the Supremacy Clause. The Second Circuit held that the Authority had standing to sue the State under the Supremacy Clause, and that Connecticut’s legislation limiting the length of the runway is preempted by the Federal Aviation Act because the statute “intrudes into the field of air safety.” The questions presented are: 1. Does a political subdivision of a State have standing to sue its creator State under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution?