The U.S. Constitution provides that federal laws are the "supreme law of the land." In the context of aviation, the doctrine of field preemption—that state action is preempted because Congress intended to occupy the entire regulatory field—has been held by many courts to generally prohibit state regulation of aircraft safety and operations. Underlying this position is that the U.S. government by statute "has exclusive sovereignty of airspace of the United States." As the Supreme Court explained more than 40 years ago in an opinion invalidating a locally imposed curfew on aircraft noise, "a uniform and exclusive system of federal regulation" is required "if the congressional objectives underlying the Federal Aviation Act are to be fulfilled." Thus, in the context of aviation, federal preemption long has been understood to sweep with a wide broom.

Whatever downsides it has, if such a design is adopted, I hope it leads to a stronger adoption of a convention that those with window seats board first.