Cite as: 532 U. S. 424 (2001)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
ment, assigns the decisions of disputed questions of fact to the jury." Id., at 432 (citing Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Elec. Cooperative, Inc., 356 U. S. 525, 537 (1958)). The Seventh Amendment provides: "In Suits at common law . . . 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." In Gasperini, we observed that although trial courts traditionally had broad authority at common law to set aside jury verdicts and to grant new trials, 518 U. S., at 432-433, "appellate review of a federal trial court's denial of a motion to set aside a jury's verdict as excessive is a relatively late, and less secure, development," id., at 434. We ultimately concluded that the Seventh Amendment does not preclude such appellate review, id., at 436, but explained that "[w]ithin the federal system, practical reasons combine with Seventh Amendment constraints to lodge in the district court, not the court of appeals, primary responsibility for application of [an excessiveness standard]," id., at 438. "Trial judges have the unique opportunity to consider the evidence in the living courtroom context," we said, "while appellate judges see only the cold paper record." Ibid. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). "If [courts of appeals] reverse, it must be because of an abuse of discretion. . . . The very nature of the problem counsels restraint. . . . [Appellate courts] must give the benefit of every doubt to the judgment of the trial judge." Id., at 438-439 (internal quotation marks omitted) (citing Dagnello v. Long Island R. Co., 289 F. 2d 797, 806 (CA2 1961)).
Although Gasperini involved compensatory damages, I see no reason why its logic should be abandoned when punitive damages are alleged to be excessive. At common law, as our longstanding decisions reiterate, the task of determining the amount of punitive damages "has [always been] left to the discretion of the jury." Day v. Woodworth, 13 How. 363, 371 (1852); see Barry v. Edmunds, 116 U. S. 550, 565 (1886)
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