by Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org Staff Writer

Forty state laws regulating Internet sales of tobacco products — and many more governing the sale and shipment of dangerous products from explosives to wild animals — are at stake in a challenge to a Maine law that the U.S. Supreme Court heard Wednesday…

The case “poses a very, very serious question that goes far beyond this case, which is: To what extent can the states enact laws…to protect the health and safety of their population, especially children?” Laura Kaplan, a lawyer for the California attorney general’s office, said in a telephone interview.

California is one of 38 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, backing Maine’s position in the case, one of four cases now under high court review that raise the question of whether a state law is superseded by a federal one. In a friend-of-the-court brief written by Kaplan, the states claim their “police powers” — that is, their ability to protect the public’s health, safety and general welfare — allow them to place restrictions on how tobacco is shipped and sold.

But delivery companies, like UPS and FedEx, say the regulations run afoul of federal law that puts the federal government in charge of package carriers. Lawyers for the transport companies say the federal law is designed to avoid a situation where delivery services have to keep track of every state’s regulation for every type of potentially dangerous product…

There’s also more at stake for states than just public safety. Controlling the distribution of cigarettes ensures that customers pay appropriate tobacco taxes, which takes on even more significance because so many states have been raising those taxes.

The high court has taken an unusually high number of cases that deal with federal preemption of state laws this term, said Robin Conrad, executive vice-president of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the U.S. Chamber’s public interest law firm…The justices are expected to rule on all of the cases by June.