Oregon Supreme Court seems resistant to compliance with U.S.S.Ct. decision on punitive damages

Here is an excerpt from Adam Liptak's story in the New York Times.

The Oregon Supreme Court has twice refused to reduce a $79.5 million punitive damages award in the face of increasingly blunt directions from the nation’s highest court.

When the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the Oregon case for a third time in June, many legal experts assumed it did so to teach the lower court a lesson about which court has the last word.

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Philip Morris USA, which is fighting the award, filed unusually aggressive briefs in recent months, comparing the Oregon Supreme Court’s conduct to that of recalcitrant Southern courts in the civil rights era.

Liptak's comprehensive report includes details of a sometimes-lively exchange between the Justices and the parties' lawyers.