Exxon Ruling Reveals Troubling Double Standard

June 25, 2008, Washington, DC—By a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court today announced a new rule of federal maritime law that caps punitive damages in many cases at an amount equal to compensatory damages, hinting that this one-to-one ratio may indeed be demanded by the Constitution. "Despite a professed disdain for so-called judge-made law by the Court's most conservative members, it was left to dissenting Justices Stevens, Ginsburg and Breyer to observe that the question of damage caps is one best addressed by legislative, rather than judicial, action," observed Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron.

"It is remarkable that the most conservative justices on the Court—Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Thomas—have endorsed this instance of judge-made law that saves a huge corporation two billion dollars when they generally claim to want to avoid having judges make the law," said Aron.  "Though the Court definitely has the power to adopt the rule it announced today, it is telling that self-proclaimed judicial conservatives would decide to do so, particularly Justices Scalia and Thomas, who believe there is no constitutional limit on punitive damage awards," Aron noted. 

According to news reports, Exxon posted record first-quarter profits of $10.9 billion in 2008.  "At this rate, it will be able to pay the reduced $500 million damages award with about 4 days' worth of profit.  Even the larger award that was rejected by the Supreme Court today would have amounted only to three weeks' profit," concluded Aron.