AP: Abortion opponents' jury penalty reduced

[question everything]

Abortion opponents' jury penalty reduced

SAN FRANCISCO – A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday substantially reduced the $108 million in punitive damages a Portland, Ore., jury awarded to abortion doctors and clinics harassed by abortion opponents.

A three-judge panel called the activists' actions reprehensible, but unanimously reduced the judgment to $4.73 million to conform with a Supreme Court precedent limiting damages that financially punish persons or corporations for misconduct.

A 2003 Supreme Court ruling generally limits punitive damages to no more than nine times the amount of damages awarded to compensate for monetary losses.

Associated Press

From http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050907/news_1n7region.html

[DeepModem Mom]

1. kick

[AlphaCentauri]

2. Award cut in abortion doctor case

A federal appeals court slashed punitive damages -- from $108.5 million to $4.7 million -- Tuesday for abortion doctors whose names and addresses were put on "Wanted'' posters and a Web site that crossed out the names of slain physicians.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the ruling was required by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2003 placing constitutional limits on punitive damages, which are awarded above a plaintiff's actual losses to punish malicious or fraudulent conduct.

Doctors and abortion clinics filed suit in Oregon against the American Coalition of Life Activists and its members, who distributed the "Wanted'' posters at rallies, offering $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and license revocation of a "Deadly Dozen'' doctors, including three of the plaintiffs. The Web site, called the Nuremberg Files, listed the names and addresses of hundreds of doctors and others who provided or supported abortions and called for them to be tried for crimes against humanity. Lines were drawn through the names of doctors who had been killed.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/07/MNG3FEJCGF1.DTL

[Lindacooks]

3. Simply the result of asshole repukes cramming the courts with

vermin 'judges' with no morals.