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The Failure Of Punitive Damages In Employment Discrimination Cases: A Call For Change, Joseph A. Seiner

William & Mary Law Review

Punitive damages were described by one early court as "an unsightly and an unhealthy excrescence." Although views toward punitive relief have changed over the years, the debate over the availability of exemplary damages in the judicial system has remained controversial. No place is that controversy more aptly demonstrated than in employment discrimination law, where punitive damages first became available in an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 after a bitter congressional debate. Almost a decade ago, in Kolstad v. American Dental Association, the Supreme Court provided guidance on how punitive damages should be applied in …