In the Estate of Floyd Cowart v. Nicklos Drilling Company case in 1991, the Supreme Court dealt with a dispute over whether federal or state law should govern certain aspects of offshore oil drilling operations. The family of Floyd Cowart, who died while working on an offshore drilling rig owned by Nicklos Drilling Company, sued for wrongful death under Texas law. However, the company argued that federal maritime law applied instead because the accident occurred more than three miles off Louisiana's coast where it was operating under a lease from the U.S government. The key issue before the court was whether Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) allowed state laws to apply to incidents occurring beyond three nautical miles from shore if they were not inconsistent with Federal laws and regulations. In this context, inconsistency meant being incompatible or unable to coexist. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cowart’s estate stating that OCSLA did allow for application of state laws when not inconsistent with Federal ones and remanded back to lower courts for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

In the dissenting opinion for Estate of Floyd Cowart v. Nicklos Drilling Company, et al., Justice Blackmun argued that the majority's decision was inconsistent with previous rulings and federal law. He contended that under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), state laws are only applicable to fill gaps in federal law when they are consistent with its purposes and objectives. In this case, he believed Texas' wrongful death statute contradicted OCSLA’s intent by limiting recovery for survivors of workers killed on offshore drilling platforms to cases where employers were negligent or had intentional misconduct. This limitation conflicted with OCSLA’s goal of extending similar protections as those provided by Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) which allows compensation regardless of employer fault. Therefore, he concluded that applying Texas law would undermine Congress' intention behind enacting OCSLA - ensuring comprehensive protection for offshore oil workers.