418
Opinion of the Court
Ginsburg, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 439. Scalia, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Thomas, J., joined, post, p. 448.
Samuel A. Abady argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Jonathan S. Abady, Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, and Andrew Dwyer.
Theodore B. Olson argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., Douglas R. Cox, Mark Snyderman, and Francis A. Montbach.*
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.
Under the law of New York, appellate courts are empowered to review the size of jury verdicts and to order new trials when the jury's award "deviates materially from what would be reasonable compensation." N. Y. Civ. Prac. Law and Rules (CPLR) § 5501(c) (McKinney 1995). Under the Seventh Amendment, which governs proceedings in federal court, but not in state court, "the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law." U. S. Const., Amdt. 7.
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America by Jeffrey Robert White and Pamela A. Liapakis; for the Picture Agency Council of America, Inc. (PACA), by Nancy E. Wolff; and for Federal Jurisdiction and Legal History Scholars Akhil Reed Amar et al. by Arthur F. McEvoy pro se, Arthur R. Miller pro se, Daniel R. Coquillette pro se, Kenneth J. Chesebro, Arthur H. Bryant, William A. Rossbach, and Jonathan S. Massey.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the City of New York by Paul A. Crotty, Leonard J. Koerner, and Elizabeth S. Natrella; for the American Council of Life Insurance et al. by Patricia A. Dunn, Stephen J. Goodman, Phillip E. Stano, and Craig Berrington; for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States et al. by W. DeVier Pierson, Mark E. Greenwold, Clinton E. Cameron, Stephen A. Bokat, and Robin S. Conrad; and for the Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc., by Michael Hoenig and David B. Hamm.
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