Political Quotes

“This is, Mr. President, to be candid, a very peculiar rule in the State of Alabama where negligence is accounted to be the subject of punitive damages. It is not the rule in any other State in the Union. Nothing in this bill, without this amendment, prevents Alabama from providing any kind of damages for wrongful death that it wishes to, either through its legislature or through its court interpretations. So Alabama is not going to be penalized any more than any other State by this bill unless Alabama wants to be, and willfully refuses to conform its laws to those of other States. But, more significant than that, Mr. President, are two other features about this amendment. The first, one of the most carefully worked out elements in this entire bill, the most carefully worked out element in this bill, is the triple set of requirements we have with respect to punitive damages, one of which, in the ultimate analysis, allows judges to impose unlimited punitive damages when they find the conduct of the defendant to have been sufficiently egregious.”