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State Constitutional Law: The Connecticut Constitution
Section 1 . 3

The Supremacy Clauses and the Hierarchy of Laws

Carl J. Schuman

1. The Supremacy Clause [in the United States Constitution] establishes that federal law “shall be the supreme Law of the Land ... any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” U.S. Const., Art. VI, cl. 2. Where state and federal law “directly conflict,” state law must give way. Wyeth, supra, at 583, 129 S.Ct. 1187 (THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment); see also *618 Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363, 372, 120 S.Ct. 2288, 147 L.Ed.2d 352 (2000) (“[S]tate law is naturally preempted to the extent of any conflict with a federal statute”). We have held that state and federal law conflict where it is “impossible for a private party to comply with both state and federal requirements.”4 Freightliner Corp. v. Myrick, 514 U.S. 280, 287, 115 S.Ct. 1483, 131 L.Ed.2d 385 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted).5

PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, 564 U.S. 604, 617–18, 131 S. Ct. 2567, 2577, 180 L. Ed. 2d 580 (2011) (footnotes omitted.)
2.  Article eleventh, § 5, of the constitution of Connecticut provides:
"The rights and duties of all corporations shall remain as if this constitution had not been adopted; with the exception of such regulations and restrictions as are contained in this constitution. All laws not contrary to, or inconsistent with, the provisions of this constitution shall remain in force, until they shall expire by their own limitation, or shall be altered or repealed by the general assembly, in pursuance of this constitution. The validity of all bonds, debts, contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies corporate, or the state, of all suits, actions, or rights of action, both in law and equity, shall continue as if no change had taken place. All officers filling any office by election or appointment shall continue to exercise the duties thereof, according to their respective commissions or appointments, until their offices shall have been abolished or their successors selected and qualified in accordance with this constitution or the laws enacted pursuant thereto."

Conn. Const., art. XI, § 5

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