Supreme Court to Poor Peons Everywhere: Drop Dead

It's official -- ExxonMobil's profits will be even higher this year. The U.S. Supreme Court, the latest subsidiary of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, took another courageous stand yesterday in defense of the little guy. Umm, right. Under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, the court ruled Wednesday to slash the punitive damages paid by Exxon -- which last year raked in more than $40 billion and has already pulled in $10 billion in the first quarter of this year -- for the massive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill along the Alaskan coastline. Instead of $2.5 billion (a U.S. appeals court had earlier reduced the award from an initial $5 billion), the oil giant will pay only $507 million. Alaskan fishermen and other locals who effectively lost their livelihood over Exxon's employment of a drunk ship captain end up with a paltry $15,000 for their apparently insignificant pain and suffering. What's really important here is the pain and suffering of a company making so much money that it's become more powerful than the majority of countries on earth.

Of course, it was all very predictable as this court clearly views the business community (and big business in particular) as its most valued constituency. Dana Milbank's piece in the Washington Post which ran back in February http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703207.html lays it all out in brilliant, if tragi-comic terms. So while we all sit at home this summer stranded in our living rooms stoned on mind-numbing reality show reruns cause we can no longer afford to fill that gas-guzzling dinosaur rusting in the drive, don't forget to say a prayer of gratitude for the wise "brethren" which ensure that we here in America continue to have "justice for all."