Amazon Covid-19 Lawsuit Spotlights State Regulatory Power

The legal battle between Amazon.com Inc. and the New York Attorney General Letitia James over Covid-19 workplace safety and health shines a legal spotlight on whether and just how far states can go to regulate workplace conditions.

The retailer is challenging the attorney general’s attempts to force it to adopt worker safety measures that go beyond what the company had implemented, in a lawsuit filed Feb. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Amazon argues that federal law preempts her from doing so.

James blasted the filing in a statement issued later that day, ...