The punitive damages case.

Philip Morris USA v. Williams, the new Supreme Court case on punitive damages and due process looks very important. Here's Linda Greenhouse:

In the majority opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the court said the [$79.5 million punitive damages award] could not stand because the jury in the case was not instructed that it could punish Philip Morris only for the harm done to the plaintiff, not to other smokers whose cases were not before it.

States must ''provide assurances that juries are not asking the wrong question ... seeking, not simply to determine reprehensibility, but also to punish for harm caused strangers,'' Breyer said....

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, joined with Breyer.

Dissenting were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens and Clarence Thomas.

An interesting split. The liberal and conservative extremes form the dissent, and the two new justices are in the more centrist majority.

Hillary's strange way of opposing the South Carolina flag.

Speaking yesterday:

"I think about how many South Carolinians have served in our military and who are serving today under our flag and I believe that we should have one flag that we all pay honor to, as I know that most people in South Carolina do every single day"...

Huh? That would be an argument against all state flags!

It seems she's trying so hard to say just the right thing and please everyone that she ends up saying something weird.

IN THE COMMENTS: George thinks Clinton's triangulation is brilliant:

I'm a Southerner, and Sen. Clinton's approach to this issue is the first I've seen by a non-Southern politician that will actually appeal to the tender egos of middle-aged Southern men.

Sen. Clinton's approach is extremely clever. In fact, it is brilliant. It appeals directly to the patriotism of Southerners in time of war by asking them to put the present and future needs of the country ahead of what's long past.

What is more charming than artists drawing sculptures?

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Sunday.

Reversed trends.

Stephanie Coontz neatly sums up an old theory:

The main reason that educated and high-achieving women have trouble finding or keeping mates, according to observers past and present, is that they won't play dumb enough to assuage a man's ego or act submissive enough to put up with unfair treatment.

And notes the new trend:

[C]ollege graduates and high-earning women are now more likely to marry than women with less education and lower earnings....

The same holds for high-earning women....

[C]ollege-educated couples have lower divorce rates than any other educational group....

Educated men and women are more likely to marry and less likely to divorce than others. And guess what? They have better sex lives, too.

Much more at the link. (Via A&L Daily.)

A stray devil.

13th century stained glass from the Bourges cathedral in France. Seen yesterday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Trump's Hair on the Line at Wrestlemania."

I don't even know what the damned article is about. I just like the headline.

...

Oh, now I've read it. Looks like Trump is into celebritney.

"I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness..."

It's Column #2 in my NYT gig.

This one's about some things said by the author of "Paper Chase" and my own experience as a law student and law professor. You'll probably experience this one as exceedingly conservative!

AND: Here's the full text of Column #1, as it goes to syndication.