Supreme Court of the United States February 20, 2007, 05-1256 (Philip Morris USA v. Williams)

Justice Ginsburg,

with whom Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas join, dissenting.

The purpose of punitive damages, it can hardly be denied, is not to compensate, but to punish. Punish for what? Not for harm actually caused “strangers to the litigation,” ante, at 353, the Court states, but for the reprehensibility of defendant’s conduct, ante, at 355.