An Oregon jury awarded $79.5 million in punitive damages to the widow of a heavy ciga- rette smoker who died of smoking-related lung cancer. The judgment against Philip Morris was reduced to $32 million by the judge. On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court over- turned the punitive damage award as a taking of property from the defendant without due process of law. While such damages may be imposed to punish unlawful conduct and deter its repetition, they may not be arbitrary nor grossly excessive, according to Jus- tice Breyer. Due process forbids a state to use a punitive damages award to punish a de-fendant for injury that it in?icts upon nonparties, as the jury appeared to do in this case.

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Philip Morris USA v. Williams 127 S.Ct. 1057 (2007). In dissent, Justices Ginsberg and Thomas argued that the punishment is based on how reprehensible the conduct was-and the more people injured, the more reprehensible the conduct.

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