636
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
pense like that could qualify as pecuniary harm and, thus, is actual damages." Tr. of Oral Arg. 43 (internal quotation marks added).
Indeed, the Court itself suggests that "fees associated with running a credit report" or "the charge for a Valium prescription" might suffice to prove "actual damages." Ante, at 626, n. 10. I think it dubious to insist on such readily created costs as essential to recovery under § 552a(g)(4). Nevertheless, the Court's examples of what might qualify as "actual damages" indicate that its disagreement with the construction of the Act prevailing in the Circuits, see supra, at 631-632, is ethereal.
The Government, although recognizing that "actual damages" may be slender and easy to generate, fears depletion of the federal fisc were the Court to adopt Doe's reading of § 552a(g)(4). Brief for Respondent 22-23, n. 5. Experience does not support those fears. As the Government candidly acknowledged at oral argument: "[W]e have not had a problem with enormous recoveries against the Government up to this point." Tr. of Oral Arg. 35. No doubt mindful that Congress did not endorse massive recoveries, the District Court in this very case denied class-action certification, see App. to Pet. for Cert. 65a, and other courts have similarly refused to certify suits seeking damages under § 552a(g)(4) as class actions. See, e. g., Schmidt v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 218 F. R. D. 619, 637 (ED Wis. 2003) (denying class certification on ground that each individual would have to prove he "suffered an adverse effect as a result of the [agency]'s failure to comply with [the Act]"); Lyon v. United States, 94 F. R. D. 69, 76 (WD Okla. 1982) ("In Privacy Act damages actions, questions affecting only individual members greatly outweigh questions of law and fact common to the class."). Furthermore, courts have disallowed the runaway liability that might ensue were they to count every single wrongful disclosure as a discrete basis for a $1,000 award. See, e. g., Tomasello v. Rubin, 167 F. 3d 612, 618 (CADC 1999) (holding that 4,500 "more-or-less contempora-
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