Federal refers to the national government. It’s distinct from state law.

federal [‘federal] adjective (a) referring to a system of government in which a group of states are linked together in a federation; a federal constitution = constitution (such as that in Germany) which provides for a series of semi-autonomous states joined together in a national federation (b) referring especially to the federal government of the United States; federal court or federal laws = court or laws of the USA, as opposed to state courts or state laws.