U.S. Supreme Court
Mar. 16, 2007
Smoky Logic
Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in the Philip Morris punitive-damages case is an incoherent mess, says a Duke law professor.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Few U.S. Supreme Court decisions this year will be more important than its recent ruling in Philip Morris USA v. Williams, 127 Sct. 1057 (2007), and surely none will be more incoherent. The high court held that juries cannot base punitive-damage awards on harm to parties other than the plaintiffs in the suit, but it also said that juries may consider harm ...
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