480
O'Connor, J., dissenting
tions. Ante, at 455. It is thus common ground that an award may be so excessive as to violate due process. Ibid. We part company, however, on how to determine if this is such an award.
In Solomonic fashion, the plurality rejects both petitioner's and respondents' proffered approaches, instead selecting a seemingly moderate course. See ante, at 456-458. But the course the plurality chooses is, in fact, no course at all. The plurality opinion erects not a single guidepost to help other courts find their way through this area. Rather, quoting Haslip's observation that there is no " 'mathematical bright line between the constitutionally acceptable and the constitutionally unacceptable,' " ante, at 458 (quoting 499 U. S., at 18), the plurality abandons all pretense of providing instruction and moves directly into the specifics of this case.
I believe that the plurality errs not only in its result but also in its approach. Our inability to discern a mathematical formula does not liberate us altogether from our duty to provide guidance to courts that, unlike this one, must address jury verdicts such as this on a regular basis. On the contrary, the difficulty of the matter imposes upon us a correspondingly greater obligation to provide the most coherent explanation we can. I agree with the plurality that we ought not adopt TXO's or respondents' suggested approach as a rigid formula for determining the constitutionality of punitive damages verdicts. But it does not follow that, in the course of deciding this case, we should avoid offering even a clue as to our own.
TXO's suggestion that this Court should rely on objective criteria has much to commend it. As an initial matter, constitutional judgments " 'should not be, or appear to be, merely the subjective views of individual Justices.' " Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U. S. 263, 274 (1980) (quoting Coker v. Georgia, 433 U. S. 584, 592 (1977) (opinion of White, J.)). Without objective criteria on which to rely, almost any decision regarding proportionality will be a matter of personal
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