It's jurisdiction. Our system here is very different. Federal law supercedes state laws. Never the other way around. Governing Federal body would be the FAA.
No they shouldn't reject the law and I have dealt with this crap first hand its inhumane. A friend of mine came to visit me from Chicago a few years back and she had never been to Canada and was a bit nervous to start with. Well to make a long story short she was delayed for 5 hours on the runway at the O'Hare Airport and was offered no food or drink and if the guy sitting behind her hadn't have offered her a bottle of water she wouldn't of had that. Now this wasn't a terrorist threat this was a case of the landing gear not testing properly why should the passengers stay on the plane Well she arrived in Toronto 6 hours late although quite upset. We still made it to see the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Center and had fun back here afterwards that week. But WTF was that treatment at O'Hare all about. Something needs to be done about this
