The U.S. Supreme Court case Rodrigue et al. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., et al., 1968, revolved around the question of whether federal or state law should apply in wrongful death and personal injury cases that occurred on artificial islands, rigs, and other fixed structures located on the Outer Continental Shelf off Louisiana's coast. The court ruled that while the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) extended federal law to these areas for certain purposes such as leasing rights and natural resource extraction regulations, it did not displace state laws regarding personal injuries unless they were inconsistent with federal laws. Therefore, Louisiana’s wrongful death statute could be applied in this context because there was no applicable federal statute at that time covering wrongful deaths occurring more than a marine league from shore.

In the dissenting opinion for Rodrigue et al. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. et al., Justice Marshall, joined by Justices Douglas and Brennan, argued that federal law should not apply to offshore drilling platforms in Louisiana's territorial waters because they are extensions of land rather than vessels or islands on the high seas. The majority had ruled that these platforms were under federal jurisdiction due to their connection with maritime commerce; however, the dissenters believed this interpretation was too broad and inconsistent with congressional intent when it passed the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). They contended that OCSLA intended state laws to govern such structures unless there was a conflict between state and federal law or if applying state law would be inconsistent with federal policy regarding outer continental shelf activities.