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Roberts Court enters a divisive second year.

Article Excerpt
Last month, the Supreme Court began its new term with a docket full of cases concerning some of society's most divisive issues. In its first year, the Roberts Court produced no major decisions on abortion rights, affirmative action, or the separation of church and state. This term, however, the justices will look at a mix of hot-button issues, including punitive damages, abortion rights, the use of race in assigning students to schools, and criminal procedure.

Punitive damages

In Philip Morris USA v. Williams, the Court will return to the question of when large punitive damages awards violate due process. (1) Mayola Williams's husband died of lung cancer after 40 years of smoking cigarettes made by Philip Morris. The jury agreed with her claim that the company had engaged over several decades in a massive, fraudulent campaign to mislead consumers about the dangers of smoking. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the jury's verdict of $821,485.50 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million in punitive damages, and the state supreme court affirmed.

In past decisions, specifically BMW v. Gore (2) and State Farm v. Campbell, (3) the Court found that excessive punitive damages do violate due process. In ruling on those cases, the Court articulated three guideposts to help courts determine when they do so: the reprehensibility of the defendants' conduct, the ratio between the punitive damages and the actual loss the plaintiff suffered, and other punishments that state law provides for the misconduct.

In Philip Morris, the Court will consider whether a jury can consider harm to parties other than the plaintiff when awarding punitive damages. In BMW and State Farm, the Court...

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