Cite as: 529 U. S. 765 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
consistent with state qui tam liability in light of the presumption against imposition of punitive damages on governmental entities. See, e. g., Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247, 262-263 (1981).15 Although this Court suggested that damages under an earlier version of the FCA were remedial rather than punitive, see Bornstein, 423 U. S., at 315; but see Smith v. Wade, 461 U. S. 30, 85 (1983) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting), that version of the statute imposed only double damages and a civil penalty of $2,000 per claim, see 31 U. S. C. § 231 (1976 ed.); the current version, by contrast, generally imposes treble damages and a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per claim, see 31 U. S. C. § 3729(a).16
Cf. Marcus, 317 U. S., at 550 (noting that double damages in
15 The dissent attempts to distinguish Newport on the basis of a single sentence in that opinion stating that "courts vie[w] punitive damages [against governmental bodies] as contrary to sound public policy, because such awards would burden the very taxpayers and citizens for whose benefit the wrongdoer was being chastised." Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S., at 263. The dissent contends that Newport is inapplicable where, as here, "[t]he taxpaying 'citizens for whose benefit' the [statute] is designed are the citizens of the United States, not the citizens of any individual State that might violate the [statute]." Post, at 801. The problem with this is that Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983—the statute at issue in Newport—is, like the FCA, a federal law designed to benefit "the citizens of the United States, not the citizens of any individual State that might violate the [statute]." A better reading of Newport is that we were concerned with imposing punitive damages on taxpayers under any circumstances. " '[Punitive damages], being evidently vindictive, cannot, in our opinion, be sanctioned by this court, as they are to be borne by widows, orphans, aged men and women, and strangers, who, admitting that they must repair the injury inflicted by the Mayor on the plaintiff, cannot be bound beyond that amount, which will be sufficient for her indemnification.' " Newport, supra, at 261 (quoting McGary v. President & Council of City of Lafayette, 12 Rob. 668, 677 (La. 1846)).
16 As the dissent correctly points out, see post, at 801, n. 11, treble damages may be reduced to double damages in certain cases, see § 3729(a). This exception, however, applies only in some of those (presumably few) cases involving defendants who provide information concerning the violation before they have knowledge that an investigation is underway. See ibid.
785
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