Breaking: Supreme Court declines to hear Exxon's argument against interest pay-out

Per the ADN:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has declined to decide whether Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay interest to victims of the nation's worst oil spill that would roughly double the $507 million judgment the high court approved in June.

In a brief order today, the court said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, should decide the matter of interest arising from the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

This could be considered a victory for the victims of the spill looking at past decisions by the 9th U.S. Circuit in the Exxon Valdez settlement.

I believe this was declined purely for political reasons. As John McCain stated unequivicably to a reporter:

"I've said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I've said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts. I worked as hard as anybody to get them confirmed. I look you in the eye and tell you I've said a thousand times that I wanted Alito and Roberts. I have told anybody who will listen. I flat-out tell you I will have people as close to Roberts and Alito [as possible], and I am proud of my record of working to get them confirmed, and people who worked to get them confirmed will tell you how hard I worked."

Declining this case takes the media spotlight off of their most recent obviously pro-business decision, to slash the punitive damages down to the equivalent of several day's worth of income for Exxon...something Dems and the Obama camp would (should) most surely highlight.