On November 7, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second. Circuit substantially reduced a trial court’s huge damages award against common carrier UPS. The decision was a partial victory for WLF, which filed an amicus curiae brief arguing that the award (including a $238 million civil penalty) was excessive under both federal common law and the U.S. Constitution. New York filed suit in 2015, claiming that UPS shipped untaxed cigarettes from Indian reservations to New York consumers in violation of state and federal law—causing the government to lose $19 million in tax revenues. The trial court held UPS liable based on UPS’s negligent failure to uncover the illegal shipments, even though New York presented no evidence that UPS knew that unmarked packages contained cigarettes. The Second Circuit agreed with WLF that the trial court’s penalty was excessive. It reduced the penalty to $78.8 million, ruling that civil penalties generally should not exceed four times lost tax revenues.