United States v. Commonwealth of Mass.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DOUGLAS P. WOODLOCK, District Judge.

This case, arising from a catastrophic oil spill in Buzzards Bay in 2003, concerns whether aspects of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Oil Spill Prevention Act (“MOSPA”) must give way to the federal Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972, as amended (“PWSA”). Throughout the travel of the case, the Commonwealth’s fortunes in this litigation — by which the United States seeks to establish that MOS-PA is preempted by PWSA — have ebbed and flowed as the matter passed from judicial officer to judicial officer.

Judge Tauro, to whom this case…