Full opinion text
ORDER TIMOTHY J. CORRIGAN, District Judge. The Engle tobacco odyssey began in 1994, when a Florida trial court certified a nationwide smokers’ class action lawsuit against the major domestic cigarette companies and two tobacco industry organizations for injuries allegedly caused by smoking. Nearly five years ago, the Florida Supreme Court decertified the class and instructed that certain jury findings relating to the tobacco defendants’ products and conduct would “have res judicata effect” in individual damages actions brought by former Engle class members. Since that time, the question of how to properly apply the “Engle findings” in accordance with the Florida Supreme Court’s directive — and whether and to what extent giving those findings preclusive effect in Engle progeny cases would violate the tobacco defendants’ due process rights — has confronted the state and federal trial courts tasked with resolving thousands of these cases. After a number of twists and turns, that question is before this Court for a second time. I. Background A. The Engle Litigation The extensive history of the Engle litigation was recently summarized by the Eleventh Circuit: Almost two decades ago, six individuals filed a lawsuit in Florida state court against the major domestic makers of cigarettes and two industry organizations seeking over $100 billion in both compensatory and punitive damages for injuries allegedly caused by smoking. Liggett Grp. Inc. v. Engle, 853 So.2d 434, 440-41 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (“Engle II”). The plaintiffs asserted claims of “strict liability, negligence, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Id. at 441. After some wrangling between the parties and an interlocutory appeal to the Third District Court of Appeal, a class was certified composed of “[a]ll Florida citizens and residents,” R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Engle, 672 So.2d 39, 42 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996) (“Engle I”), “and their survivors who have suffered, presently suffer or who have died from diseases and medical conditions caused by their addiction to cigarettes that contain nicotine.” Engle v. Liggett Grp. Inc., 945 So.2d 1246, 1256 (Fla.2006) (“Engle III”). There were estimated to be at least 700,000 class members. Id. at 1258; Engle II, 853 So.2d at 442. To manage the class action, the trial court developed a trial plan that had three phases. See Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1256. Phase I was a year-long trial that involved only “common issues relating ... to the defendants’ conduct and the general health effects of smoking.” Id. The jury was given a verdict form at the end of Phase I containing a series of questions. The verdict form asked the jury to answer “yes” or “no” to each question for specific time periods for each of the defendants. The Engle class came close to running the table — the jury answered “yes” to almost every question put to them. The jury found: (1) that smoking cigarettes causes 20 of 23 listed diseases or medical conditions; (2) that cigarettes containing nicotine are addictive or dependence producing; (3) that the defendants placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous; (4) that the defendants made a false statement of a material fact, either knowing the statement was false or misleading, or being without knowledge as to its truth or falsity, with the intention of misleading smokers; (4a) that the defendants concealed or omitted material information, not otherwise known or available, knowing the material was false and misleading, or failed to disclose a material fact concerning or proving the health effects and/or addictive nature of smoking cigarettes; (5) that the defendants entered into an agreement to misrepresent information relating to the health effects of cigarette smoking, or the addictive nature of smoking cigarettes, with the intention that smokers and members of the public rely to their detriment; (5a) that the defendants entered into an agreement to conceal or omit information regarding the health effects of cigarette smoking, or the addictive nature of smoking cigarettes, with the intention that smokers and members of the public rely to their detriment; (6) that the defendants sold or supplied cigarettes that were defective in that they were not reasonably fit for the uses intended; (7) that the defendants sold or supplied cigarettes that, at the time of sale or supply, did not conform to representations of fact made by the defendants either orally or in writing; (8) that the defendants failed to exercise the degree of care that a reasonable cigarette manufacturer would exercise under like circumstances; (9) that the defendants engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct or with reckless disregard relating to cigarettes sold to Florida smokers with the intent to inflict severe emotional distress; and (10) that the defendants’ conduct rose to a level that would permit a potential award or entitlement to punitive damages. See id. at 1257 n. 4. In Phase I, however, the jury was not asked whether the class had proven any of its claims; it did not decide if the defendants were liable to anyone on any cause of action. See Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1246 (“In Phase I, the jury decided issues related to Tobacco’s conduct but did not consider whether any class members relied on Tobacco’s misrepresentations or were injured by Tobacco’s conduct.”); Engle II, 853 So.2d at 450 (“In Phase [I], the jury answered certain general questions about the defendants’ products and conduct. The questions related to some, but not all of the elements of each legal theory alleged .... The jury did not determine whether defendants were liable to anyone. Essential elements of liability, such as reliance and proximate cause, were [not] tried in Phase I.”). Later, in Phase II, the same jury did determine that the defendants’ conduct was the legal cause of three individual class representatives’ injuries. The three were awarded a total of $12.7 million in compensatory damages after their comparative fault was taken into account. Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1257. The jury also awarded a lump sum of $145 billion in punitive damages to the entire Engle class. Id. Before Phase III[ — in which new juries were to decide the individual liability and damages claims for each individual class member — ]could be conducted, the defendants appealed the verdicts the jury had returned in Phases I and II. Engle II, 853 So.2d at 441-42; see also Brown v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 576 F.Supp.2d 1328, 1332 (M.D.Fla.2008) [ (“Bernice Brown I ”) ]. The appeal resulted in a Third District Court of Appeal decision that the Engle class should be decertified. The court concluded that class action treatment was inappropriate because “the plaintiffs smokers’ claims [wejre uniquely individualized and [could not] satisfy the ‘predominance’ and ‘superiority’ requirements imposed by Florida’s class action rules.” Engle II, 853 So.2d at 444. The court also reversed the compensatory damages award in favor of the three individual class representatives, finding that none of them had valid claims against any of the defendants. As for the punitive damages award, the court reversed it on a variety of grounds that are not relevant to the present ease. See id. at 470. The class appealed the Third District Court of Appeal’s decision to the Florida Supreme Court. That court agreed that the punitive damages award to the class should be reversed, Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1254, and agreed with the reversal of the compensatory damages award to one of the three individual class representatives, id. at 1276. However, the court reinstated the compensatory damages award to the other two class representatives. Id. For our purposes though, the most important parts of the Engle III decision are those involving certification of the Engle class and the jury’s findings in Phase I. The Florida Supreme Court decided that the trial court had not abused its discretion in certifying the Engle class for Phases I and II but also decided that “continued class action treatment for Phase III of the trial plan [was] not feasible because individualized issues such as legal causation, comparative fault, and damages [would] predominate.” Id. at 1267-68. As for the jury’s findings in Phase I, the court threw out four of them but determined that the remainder could stand. See Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1255. (We will refer to the findings that were not thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court as the Phase I “approved” findings.) The court then set out where the case should go from there: [“]The pragmatic solution is to now decertify the class, retaining the jury’s Phase I findings other than those on the fraud and intentional infliction of emotion distress claims, which involved highly individualized determinations, and the findings on the entitlement to punitive damages questions, which was premature. Class members can choose to initiate individual damages actions and the Phase I common core findings we approved above will have res judicata effect in those trials.[”] Id. at 1269 (emphasis added). Brown v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 611 F.3d 1324, 1326-29 (11th Cir.2010) (“Bem ice Brown II ”) (footnote in original; other footnotes omitted). B. The Engle Progeny Cases and Bernice Brown Former Engle class members who wished to pursue “individual damages actions” were required to file their claims within one year of the Florida Supreme Court’s mandate in Engle III, which left a deadline of January 11, 2008. Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1277. An estimated 9,000 individual suits, which have come to be known as “Engle progeny cases,” were brought within the one-year window created by the Florida Supreme Court’s savings period. {See Report of Temporary Special Master on Case Management of Engle Progeny Cases (“TSM Report”), Engle Master Docket Doc. 147, at 18.) Several thousand such Engle progeny cases were either timely filed in — or removed to — this Court in late 2007 and early 2008. See Bernice Brown I, 576 F.Supp.2d at 1334. In their complaints before this Court, the plaintiffs asserted that the Phase I approved findings preclusively established the conduct elements of their Engle progeny claims, meaning they need only prove up “specific causation, apportionment of damages, comparative fault, compensatory damages, and punitive damages” in their individual actions. Bernice Brown II, 611 F.3d at 1329. The tobacco defendants disagreed, and moved pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 16(c) for a pretrial ruling “to determine the preclusive effects of the Engle Phase I findings and determine whether those findings may be used to establish any of the elements of Plaintiffs’ various claims and whether such use may be done in accordance with the dictates of established preclusion law and constitutional due process.” Bernice Brown I, 576 F.Supp.2d at 1334. In an Order dated August 28, 2008, another Judge of this Court determined that under Florida preclusion law “the findings [could] not be given preclusive effect in any proceeding to establish any element of an Engle plaintiffs claim.” Id. at 1348. As “an additional basis for its decision,” the Court found that allowing the Phase I approved findings to establish elements of an Engle plaintiffs cause of action would violate the defendants’ due process rights. Id. at 1344-46. At the parties’ request, the Bernice Brown I decision was certified to the Eleventh Circuit for interlocutory appeal. Id. at 1348. The Eleventh Circuit began its analysis of the Engle preclusion issue by noting that, pursuant to the Full Faith and Credit Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, “a federal court must ‘give preclusive effect to a state court judgment to the same extent as would courts of the state in which the judgment was entered.’ ” Bernice Brown II, 611 F.3d at 1331 (quoting Kahn v. Smith Barney Shearson Inc., 115 F.3d 930, 933 (11th Cir.1997)). In other words, “the Phase I approved findings must be given the same preclusive effect in this federal court case that they would be given if the case were in state court. Florida preclusion law controls.” Id. Without the benefit of a Florida appellate court decision directly addressing the preclusive scope of the Phase I approved findings, the Eleventh Circuit canvassed existing Florida preclusion law to determine precisely what “res judicata effect” they would be given in a Florida state court. As an initial matter, the Eleventh Circuit determined that the Florida Supreme Court’s reference to “res judicata” was necessarily a reference to “issue preclusion” rather than “claim preclusion” because “factual issues and not causes of action were decided in Phase I.” Id. at 1333. In Florida, the Court noted, issue preclusion “only operates to prevent the re-litigation of issues that were decided, or ‘actually adjudicated,’ between the parties in an earlier lawsuit;” that is, the doctrine “prevents ‘parties from litigating in the second suit issues — [i.e.] points and questions — common to both causes of action and which were actually adjudicated in the prior litigation.’ ” Id. at 1334 (quoting Gordon v. Gordon, 59 So.2d 40, 44 (Fla.1952)). The Court found that “Florida courts have enforced [this] ‘actually adjudicated’ requirement with rigor,” such that “[i]ssue preclusive effect is not given to issues which could have, but may not have, been decided in an earlier lawsuit between the parties.” Id. (citations omitted). Applying the “actually adjudicated” requirement to the Engle findings, the Court concluded that “the Phase I approved findings may not be used to establish facts that were not actually decided by the jury.” Id. The Court thus declined to address whether using the approved findings to establish facts which may not have been “actually decided” would violate Defendants’ due process rights “because under Florida law the findings could not be used for that purpose anyway.” Id. “The bottom line,” the Court concluded, “is that the Phase I approved findings may be given effect to the full extent of, but no farther than, what the jury found. The disagreement is about what the jury actually did find.” Id. To determine “what the jury found,” the Eleventh Circuit interpreted Florida law to require “the asserting party to show with a ‘reasonable degree of certainty’ that the specific factual issue was determined in its favor.” Id. at 1335 (quoting Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Indus. Contracting Co., 260 So.2d 860, 864-65 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972) (emphasis added)). The Court explained that an Engle progeny plaintiff could utilize “[t]he entire record” to meet this burden, “pointing] to specific parts of [the record] to support its position, so long as those parts of the record combine to show to a reasonable degree of certainty that the jury made the specific factual determination that is being asserted.” Id, In closing, the Court noted: In the pre-trial order that is the subject of this interlocutory appeal, the district court decided that the Phase I approved findings may not be used to establish any element of the plaintiffs’ causes of action. The district court reached that conclusion without first giving preclusive effect to the Phase I approved findings. The Phase I approved findings have to be given preclusive effect; they do establish some facts that are relevant to this litigation. Otherwise, the Florida Supreme Court’s statement in Engle III that the Phase I approved findings were to have “res judicata effect” in trials involving former class members would be meaningless. It is for the district court to determine, for example, whether the jury’s answer to Question 3 [i.e., that the defendants placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous] establishes only that the defendants sold some cigarettes that were defective and unreasonably dangerous, or whether the plaintiffs have carried their burden of showing to a reasonable degree of certainty that it also establishes that all of the cigarettes that the defendants sold fit that description. See Seaboard, 260 So.2d at 864-65. Until the scope of the factual issues decided in the Phase I approved findings is determined, it is premature to address whether those findings by themselves establish any elements of the plaintiffs’ claims. Only after Florida law is properly applied to determine the scope of the facts established by the approved findings can it be decided which, if any, elements of the claims are established by them. Accordingly, the district court’s ruling that “the findings may not be given preclusive effect in any proceeding to establish any element of an Engle Plaintiffs claim,” cannot stand, at least not at this time. Id. at 1335-36 (emphasis added). The Eleventh Circuit thus vacated and remanded, leaving it to this Court “to apply Florida law as we have outlined it and decide in the first instance precisely what facts are established when preclusive effect is given to the approved findings.” Id. at 1336. After the Eleventh Circuit issued its mandate in August 2010, the parties filed various motions proposing that this Court’s stay be lifted in a number of select Engle progeny cases, which would then proceed to discovery and trial. {See Engle Master Docket, Docs. 5, 6, 8, 9). Following a December 7, 2010 case management conference (Engle Master Docket, Doc. 30), the Court entered its First Omnibus Engle Order (Engle Master Docket, Doc. 42, “First Omnibus Engle Order”), lifting the stay in twelve “lead” cases only. With respect to the preclusion issue on remand from Bernice Brown II, the parties were directed to file motions and memoranda in each activated case so that this Court could determine which Engle facts should be given preclusive effect under Florida law as the Eleventh Circuit had outlined it. (First Omnibus Engle Order at 2.) C. Martin Before the Court could undertake that task, however, the landscape of Florida preclusion law — specifically as it pertains to Engle — changed. On December 14, 2010, the First District Court of Appeal became the first Florida appellate court to address “the extent to which an Engle class member can rely upon the findings from the class action when she individually pursues one or more Engle defendants for damages.” R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Martin, 53 So.3d 1060, 1066 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010). In Martin, a cigarette smoker’s widow sued RJR seeking damages for her husband’s death, alleging causes of action for strict liability, fraud by concealment, conspiracy to commit fraud, negligence, and punitive damages. Id. at 1064. After a jury trial, the trial judge instructed the jury, in pertinent part: This action has been brought as a part of a case known as the Engle class action. The first issue for your determination ... is whether Benny Martin was a member of the Engle class. Certain findings from that action are binding upon you, the Court and the parties. The findings may not be denied or questioned, and they must carry the same weight they would have if you had determined them yourselves. The established findings are: Finding one, is that cigarettes are addictive. Finding two, is that cigarettes cause lung cancer. If you find that Benny Martin is a member of the Engle class, certain other findings are binding upon you, the Court and the parties. The findings may not be denied or questioned, and they must carry the same weight they would have if you had determined them yourselves. Those established findings are: Finding three, is that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was negligent. Finding four, is that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous. Finding five, is that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company conspired with other companies to conceal or omit information regarding the health effect [sic] of cigarettes or their addictive nature or both. Those companies include Phillip Morris, Liggett, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, individually, and as successors to the American Tobacco Company, the Council for Tobacco Research, USA, Inc., and the Tobacco Institute. Finding six, is that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, in furtherance of that conspiracy, concealed or omitted material information, not otherwise known or available, knowing that material was false or misleading, or failed to disclose a material fact concerning the health effects or addictive nature of smoking cigarettes or both. * * * The findings that I have described to you do not establish that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is liable to Mrs. Martin, nor do they establish whether Benny Martin was injured by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s conduct or the degree, if any, to which R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s product was the sole or contributing cause of Benny Martin’s death. The findings establish only what they expressly state, and you must not speculate or guess as to the basis for the findings. Id. at 1064-65 (emphasis added). The jury ultimately found that addiction to RJR cigarettes was a legal cause of Mr. Martin’s death; RJR’s conspiracy to conceal and actual concealment of information was a legal cause of Mr. Martin’s death; RJR and Mr. Martin were respectively 66% and 34% responsible for Mr. Martin’s death; and punitive damages were warranted. The jury awarded Mrs. Martin $5 million in compensatory damages, which the court later reduced to $3.3 million based on the jury’s apportionment of fault, and $25 million in punitive damages. Id. at 1066. On appeal, RJR contended that the trial court, by instructing the jury that Mrs. Martin need not present evidence as to RJR’s conduct because those facts had been conclusively established in Phase I, had given the Phase I findings an overly broad preclusive effect: In RJR’s view, the findings given res judicata effect by the supreme court facially prove only that RJR at some point manufactured and sold an unspecified brand of cigarette containing an undefined defect; RJR committed one or more unspecified negligent acts; RJR on some occasion concealed unspecified information about the health effects of smoking and the addictive nature of smoking; and RJR and several other entities agreed to conceal said unspecified information. Thus, RJR argues, notwithstanding the Engle findings Mrs. Martin was required to prove Lucky Strike brand cigarettes contained a specific defect rendering the brand unreasonably dangerous; RJR violated a duty of care it owed to Mr. Martin; RJR concealed particular information which, had it been disclosed, would have led Mr. Martin to avoid contracting lung cancer; and RJR was part of a conspiracy to conceal the specified information. Id. (emphasis added). The Martin court disagreed with RJR’s characterization, which it termed “an application of the supreme court’s decision that would essentially nullify it.” Id. Rather, the court found, “[n]o matter the wording of the findings on the Phase I verdict form, the jury considered and determined specific matters related to the defendants’ conduct. Because the findings are common to all class members, Mrs. Martin, under the supreme court’s holding in Engle [III], was entitled to rely on them in her damages action against RJR.” Id. at 1067 (emphasis added). However, as the Martin court acknowledged, this conclusion merely begged the question: “to what extent could Mrs. Martin use the Engle findings to establish the elements of her claims?” Id. (emphasis added). In answering this question, the court considered the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Bernice Brown II. Though it “generally agreefd]” with the Eleventh Circuit’s analysis of Florida preclusion law, the Martin court found it “unnecessary to distinguish between [claim or issue preclusion] or to define what the supreme court meant by ‘res judicata’ to conclude the factual determinations made by the Phase I jury cannot be relitigated by RJR and the other Engle defendants.” Id. Most critically, the court disagreed with the Eleventh Circuit’s conclusion that “every Engle plaintiff must trot out the class action trial transcript to prove applicability of the Phase I findings.” Id. Rather, the court held, “the common issues” decided by the Phase I jury, “which the jury decided in favor of the class, were the ‘conduct’ elements of the claims asserted by the class, and not simply, as characterized by the Eleventh Circuit, a collection of facts relevant to those elements.” Id. (emphasis in original). The Martin court found support for its holding in the Final Judgment and Amended Omnibus Order entered by the Phase I trial judge, Engle v. R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co., No. 94-08273, 2000 WL 33534572 (Fla. Cir.Ct. Nov. 6, 2000). That Order, the Martin court found, “sets out the evidentiary foundation for the Phase I jury’s findings on [Mrs. Martin’s] claims, and demonstrates that the verdict is conclusive as to the conduct elements of the claims.” Martin, 53 So.3d at 1068. The First DCA thus concluded — “unlike the Eleventh Circuit” — that “the Phase I findings establish the conduct elements of the asserted claims, and individual Engle plaintiffs need not independently prove up those elements or demonstrate the relevance of the findings to their lawsuits, assuming they assert the same claims raised in the class action.” Id. at 1069. D. Post-Mariiw Engle Progeny Case Management Following the First DCA’s decision, this Court granted the Defendants’ unopposed request to file briefs addressing the impact of Martin on the Engle preclusion issue. {Engle Master Docket, Doc. 38.) In their initial brief, Defendants conceded that “the state appellate court opinion in Martin binds this Court on questions of state preclusion law.” {Engle Master Docket, Doc. 44 at 1.) However, they disagreed with Martin’s holding “as a substantive matter,” and argued that “Martin does not (and cannot) conclusively answer whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause permits ... plaintiffs [to use] the Engle findings to establish elements of their claims [without first showing] that those precise issues were actually and necessarily determined in their favor by the Engle jury.” {Id. at 1-2.) Plaintiffs, in contrast, contended that Martin “answer[ed] the issues raised by the Eleventh Circuit in [Bernice Brown II] concerning the evidentiary basis for the preclusive findings.” (Engle Master Docket, Doc. 45 at 2.) Specifically, plaintiffs noted that “[t]he Brown court stated issue preclusion under Florida law requires a showing that within reasonable certainty the Engle [Phase] I jury actually adjudicated the factual finding sought to be precluded,” and argued that the Martin court had in fact found the Phase I approved findings “were grounded in the evidence and actually adjudicated.” {Id. at 2, 5.) Martin thus “puts to bed any due process arguments,” according to plaintiffs, because “the determination that the findings had been ‘actually adjudicated’ is tantamount to determining that a full and fair opportunity to litigate existed and that the minimum requirements of due process have been satisfied.” {Id. at 5-6.) On June 6, 2011, this Court held a Case Management Conference to discuss all matters related to the federal Engle progeny cases, including the preclusion issue. {Engle Master Docket, Doc. 173.) Defendants once again acknowledged that Martin’s interpretation of Florida preclusion law controls, “unless this Court were to determine that following Martin would vioíate the Defendants’ federal due process rights.” (Engle Master Docket, Doc. 171 at 63.) The due process problem could be avoided altogether, Defendants contended for the first time, if the Court applied Florida preclusion law as outlined by the Eleventh Circuit in Bernice Brown, II, an approach which Defendants now believed would comport with due process. (Id. at 66-67.) Plaintiffs reiterated their position that Martin satisfies the record-based inquiry envisioned by the Eleventh Circuit in Bernice Brown II. (Id. at 67.) Notwithstanding that position, plaintiffs’ counsel represented that plaintiffs could independently comply with the requirements of the Eleventh Circuit’s analysis in Bernice Brown II if required to do so. (Id.) Such compliance would be structured as an offer of proof — a “Brown Proffer” — wherein plaintiffs would identify the issues in a progeny case for which preclusion is sought, supported by specific citations to the Engle record. (See TSM Report at 59-60.) Plaintiffs’ “belt and suspenders” approach of complying with Bernice Brown, II even though such a showing is not required by Florida preclusion law post-Martin would be in the plaintiffs’ best interest, counsel argued, because such compliance would eliminate any due process concerns lingering from Martin’s application of Engle. (Engle Master Docket, Doc. 171 at 67.) The Court agreed to set the preclusion and due process issues for briefing and a hearing. (Id. at 64, 74.) Accordingly, Defendants filed their Motion To Determine the Preclusive Effect of the Engle Phase I Findings Under Rule 16(c), (Doc. 35), which is the matter presently before the Court. Plaintiffs filed their response in opposition, (Doc. 44), as well as a Brown Proffer purporting to provide Engle record evidence that the Phase I jury decided facts establishing the conduct elements of the Waggoners’ claims for strict liability, fraudulent concealment, conspiracy to fraudulently conceal, and negligence. (Doc. 45.) Defendants subsequently filed a reply (Doc. 55), and in a hearing on September 7, 2011, (Doc. 61), the record of which is incorporated herein by reference, the Court heard argument from the parties and took the matter under advisement. E. Jimmie Lee Brown On September 21, 2011, two weeks after this Court heard argument on Defendants’ Rule 16(c) motion, the Fourth District Court of Appeal became the second Florida appellate court to address the Engle preclusion issue. See R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Jimmie Lee Brown, 70 So.3d 707, 709 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011). In Jimmie Lee Brown, as in Martin, a cigarette smoker’s widow sued RJR seeking damages for her husband’s death, alleging causes of action for strict liability, negligence, fraud by concealment, and civil conspiracy to commit fraud by concealment. Id. at 711. The case proceeded to trial in two phases. In the first phase, “the jury was asked to determine whether Mr. Brown was a member of the Engle class, i.e. whether he was addicted to RJR cigarettes containing nicotine; and, if so, was his addiction a legal cause of his death.” Id. In the second phase, “the jury was to determine (i) whether R JR’s conduct was a legal cause of Mr. Brown’s death; (ii) comparative fault; and (iii) damages.” Id. at 713. In the first phase, the jury answered both class membership questions (i.e., addiction and causation) in Mr. Brown’s favor. Id. Before the second phase opening statements began, the trial court instructed the jury that because it had found Mr. Brown to be an Engle class member, it was bound by the following findings: “One, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company failed to exercise the degree of care which a reasonable cigarette manufacturer would exercise under like circumstances. Two, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous.” Id. Later, at the close of the second phase evidence, the trial court instructed the jury as follows: As I instructed you previously, a prior court decided certain issues and made certain findings that are binding on you and the parties in this case. Therefore, I am now instructing you that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company did the following: One, failed to exercise the degree of care that a reasonably careful cigarette manufacturer would exercise under like circumstances and placed cigarettes on the market that were defective, and unreasonably dangerous. There are two claims that have been presented to you in this case. The first is one of negligence. The issue for your determination on plaintiffs negligence claim, is whether the failure to exercise reasonable care on the part of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was a legal cause of Roger Brown’s death.... Negligence is a legal cause of loss, injury or damage if it directly and in natural and continuous sequence produces or contributes substantially to producing such loss, injury or damage so that it can reasonably be said that but for the negligence the loss, injury or damage would not have occurred. In order to be regarded as a legal cause of loss, injury or damage, negligence need not be the only cause. Negligence may be a legal cause of loss even though it operates in combination with some other cause, if the other cause occurs at the same time as the negligence and if the negligence contributes substantially to producing the loss. The second claim, the issue for your determination on the plaintiffs strict liability claim is whether the defective and unreasonably dangerous cigarettes R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company placed on the market were a legal cause of Roger Brown’s death.... A defect in a product is a legal cause of loss, injury or damage if it directly and in natural continuous sequence produces or contributes substantially to producing such loss, injury or damage so that it can reasonably be said that but for the defect the loss, injury or damage would not have occurred. In order to be regarded again as a legal cause of loss, a defect need not be the only cause, a defect may be a legal cause of loss even though it operates in combination with some other cause if the other cause occurs at the same time as the defect and if the defect contributes substantially to producing such loss. Id. (emphasis added). The jury ultimately found both RJR’s negligence and its defective and unreasonably dangerous cigarettes to be legal causes of Mr. Brown’s death, and awarded Mrs. Brown compensatory damages. Id. at 713-14. On appeal, RJR argued — as it had in Martin — that “the trial court gave the Engle findings overly broad preclusive effect, relieving the plaintiff of her burden to prove that RJR committed particular negligent acts in violation of a duty of care owed to Mr. Brown and to prove that the cigarettes Mr. Brown smoked contained a specific defect that injured Mr. Brown.” Id. at 714. After summarizing the conflicting preclusion analyses in Bernice Brown II and Martin, the Fourth DCA sided with Martin on the ultimate question of Engle ’s preclusive effect: By and large, we agree with the Eleventh Circuit’s determination in Brown that the Florida Supreme Court’s reference to the res judicata effect of the Engle findings necessarily meant issue preclusion, not claim preclusion. However, we do not go as far as Brown to require trial courts to evaluate whether any elements of post-Engle plaintiffs’ claims are established by the Engle findings. We are constrained by the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Engle III, which held the conduct elements of certain claims were established. In Phase I of Engle, “common issues” relating to “the defendants’ conduct and the general health effects of smoking” were litigated, not the entire causes of action. Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1256; see also Rice-Lamar v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 853 So.2d 1125, 1131 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (stating that issue preclusion “does not require prior litigation of an entire claim, only a particular issue”). Therefore, we conclude, as Martin did, that individual post-Engle plaintiffs need not prove the conduct elements in negligence and strict liability claims, as asserted here. Martin, 53 So.3d at 1069.... Like Martin, and in accordance with Engle III, the Engle findings preclusively establish the conduct elements of the strict liability and negligence claims as pled in this case. Those elements are not subject to relitigation. Nevertheless, the remaining elements of the underlying claims, i.e. legal causation and damages, must be proven in the second phase of trial.... Id. at 715 (emphasis added). Once the court’s analysis of the preclusion issue was complete, however, it appended the following proviso: As discussed in more detail in the special concurrence, we are concerned the preclusive effect of the Engle findings violates Tobacco’s due process rights, but remain compelled to follow the mandate of the supreme court. See Richards v. Jefferson County, 517 U.S. 793, 797, 116 S.Ct. 1761, 135 L.Ed.2d 76 (1996) (“We have long held ... that extreme applications of the doctrine of res judicata may be inconsistent with a federal right that is ‘fundamental in character.’ ”) (quoting Postal Tel. Cable Co. v. City of Newport, 247 U.S. 464, 476, 38 S.Ct. 566, 62 L.Ed. 1215 (1918)). Id. at 716 (emphasis added). Chief Judge May’s special concurrence then chronicled the legal uncertainty and due process concerns that have arisen in Engle III’s wake. In particular, the concurrence cited Justice Wells’ dissent in Engle III (which called the retention of the Phase I findings “problematic” rather than “pragmatic,” Engle III, 945 So.2d at 1284 (Wells, J., dissenting)) as foreshadowing, and Martin and Bernice Brown I & II as embodying, Engle’s troubling implications for trial and appellate courts. Id. at 718-20 (May, C.J., specially concurring). The concurrence then concluded with the following flourish: What the trial courts are playing is a form of legal poker. They must use the legal cards they have been dealt — the Engle factual findings are binding. But, as R.J. Reynolds argues, a number of ultimate factual issues remain unresolved as identified by the dissent in Engle and the Eleventh Circuit in Brown. And, a lurking constitutional issue hovers over the poker game: To what extent does the preclusive effect of the Engle findings violate the manufacturer’s due process rights ? Until our supreme court answers these and other questions, parties to the tobacco litigation will continue to play legal poker, placing their bets on questions left unresolved by Engle and calling the bluff of trial courts on a myriad of issues sure to rise from the hundreds, no thousands, of cases pending in trial courts throughout our State. Id. at 720 (emphasis added). For the sake of completeness, this Court instructed the parties to file supplemental briefs addressing the effect, if any, of Jimmie Lee Brown on the due process arguments raised by Defendants’ Rule 16(c) motion. (Doc. 67.) The parties have now done so (Docs. 78, 80), and this matter is ripe for resolution. II. Discussion The preclusive use of the Phase I approved findings permeates all aspects of the Engle progeny litigation, from discovery to trial. Nearly five years removed from Engle III, courts continue to struggle with the extent to which those findings should be given “res judicata effect” in the “individual damages actions” brought by former Engle class members, as the Florida Supreme Court requires. Intertwined with the practical difficulties of affording the Florida Supreme Court’s intended preclusive effect to the Phase I approved findings is the “lurking constitutional issue” whether doing so violates Defendants’ due process rights. Reaching that ultimate issue, however, requires this Court to untangle the complicated web of Engle III, Bernice Brown II, Martin, and Jimmie Lee Brown. A. Erie and Full Faith and Credit As the Eleventh Circuit recognized in Bernice Brown II, “the Phase I approved findings must be given the same preclusive effect in this federal court case that they would be given if the case were in state court. Florida preclusion law controls.” Bernice Brown II, 611 F.3d at 1331 (emphasis added). This application of Florida preclusion law to the federal Engle progeny cases is compelled by — and accomplished through — the operation of two independent doctrines: full faith and credit and Eñe. The Full Faith and Credit Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, requires that a federal court “give preclusive effect to a state court judgment to the same extent as would courts of the state in which the judgment was entered.” Bernice Brown II, 611 F.3d at 1331 (quotation omitted). However, identifying the appropriate state rules to determine the preclusive scope of the Engle judgment requires application of Erie principles. See Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 78, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938). Thus, while this federal court must, pursuant to the Florida Supreme Court’s direction, give “res judicata effect” to the Phase I approved findings as a matter of full faith and credit, Erie provides the vehicle for determining what “res judicata effect” actually means under Florida law. Under normal circumstances, the decision of the Florida Supreme Court in Engle III — which purported to mandate how the findings should be used — would have been the starting and stopping point for this analysis. See Molinos Valle Del Cibao, C. por A. v. Lama, 633 F.3d 1330, 1348 (11th Cir.2011) (“Where the highest court — -in this case, the Florida Supreme Court — has spoken on the topic, we follow its rule.”) However, the sui generis nature of the Engle case, coupled with the Florida Supreme Court’s imprecise “res judicata” terminology, left the exact scope of Phase I’s preclusive effect unclear. Cf. id. (“Where [the state’s highest] court has not spoken, however, we must predict how [that] court would decide this case.”) It was for this reason that both another Judge of this Court and the Eleventh Circuit, in Bernice Brown I & II, undertook analyses of Florida preclusion law to predict how and to what extent Florida courts would apply the findings under the directive of Engle III. Ultimately, the Eleventh Circuit concluded — under Florida preclusion law as it existed at the time— that Engle progeny plaintiffs could only use the Phase I approved findings to establish elements of their claims in federal court if they could demonstrate with a “reasonable degree of certainty” that the “specific factual issue” in question was actually and necessarily determined by the jury. Bernice Broim II, 611 F.3d at 1334-35 (emphasis added). As detailed supra, shortly after the Eleventh Circuit issued its mandate, two Florida intermediate appellate courts determined that the Phase I approved findings are preclusive as to the conduct elements of an Engle progeny plaintiffs claims. See Martin, 53 So.3d at 1069 (“[UJnlike the Eleventh Circuit, we conclude the Phase I findings establish the conduct elements of the asserted claims, and individual Engle plaintiffs need not independently prove up those elements or demonstrate the relevance of the findings to their lawsuits, assuming they assert the same claims raised in the class action”); Jimmie Lee Brown, 70 So.3d at 715 (“We are constrained by the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Engle III, which held the conduct elements of certain claims were established.... Like Martin, and in accordance with Engle III, the Engle findings preclusively establish the conduct elements of the strict liability and negligence claims as pled in this case. Those elements are not subject to relitigation”). Further, both courts expressly disagreed with Bernice Brown II by holding that an Engle progeny plaintiff need not demonstrate, with reference to the Engle record or otherwise, that specific determinative facts underpinning the conduct elements of their claims were “actually adjudicated” by the Phase I jury. See Martin, 53 So.3d at 1067 (“[W]e do not agree every Engle progeny plaintiff must trot out the class action trial transcript to prove applicability of the Phase I findings.... The common issues, which the jury decided in favor of the class, were the ‘conduct’ elements of the claims asserted by the class, and not simply, as characterized by the Eleventh Circuit, a collection of facts relevant to those elements”) (emphasis in original); Jimmie Lee Brown, 70 So.3d at 715 (“[W]e do not go as far as [the Eleventh Circuit in] Brown to require trial courts to evaluate whether any elements of post-Engle plaintiffs’ claims are established by the Engle findings”). Under Erie, this Court is now bound by the holdings in Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown on questions of Florida preclusion law as it pertains to Engle notwithstanding the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Bernice Brown II. See Molinos, 633 F.3d at 1348 (“As a general matter, we must follow the decisions of [Florida’s] intermediate [appellate] courts” absent “persuasive evidence [which] demonstrates that the highest court would conclude otherwise”); see also Ad-Vantage Tel. Directory Consultants, Inc. v. GTE Directories Corp., 943 F.2d 1511, 1520 (11th Cir.1991) (a district court may depart from an appellate mandate where “an intervening change in the controlling [state] law dictates a different result” (emphasis in original)). Accordingly, both sides readily acknowledge that this Court must give preclusive effect to the Phase I approved findings to the same extent the Florida appellate courts in Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown did. That is, of course, unless doing so would violate Defendants’ federal due process rights. See Salve Regina College v. Russell, 499 U.S. 225, 226, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991) (“Erie mandates that a federal court sitting in diversity apply the substantive law of the forum State, absent a federal statutory or constitutional directive to the contrary”); see also Richards, 517 U.S. at 797, 116 S.Ct. 1761 (“State courts are generally free to develop their own rules for protecting against the relitigation of common issues or the piecemeal resolution of disputes. We have long held, however, that extreme applications of the doctrine of res judicata may be inconsistent with a federal right that is ‘fundamental in character’ ”) (citations omitted). B. The Phase I Findings Defendants argue that the application of Florida issue preclusion law as announced in Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown is inconsistent with their federal due process rights. Citing to a number of early Supreme Court collateral estoppel cases, Defendants contend “[d]ue process requires ‘certainty’ that the earlier jury actually decided the specific issues that Plaintiff seeks to preclude from further litigation.” (Doc. 55 at 2) (emphasis in original). Defendants assert that Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown cannot be squared with this standard insofar as they hold that the Phase I findings preclusively establish the conduct elements of the Engle class claims, regardless of whether the jury actually decided that the particular conduct relevant to an individual progeny plaintiff was wrongful. The issue, in a nutshell, is as follows. The Engle Phase I jury was asked a number of questions on the Phase I verdict form. The jury initially found that “smoking cigarettes cause[s]” certain enumerated diseases (Finding 1) and that “cigarettes that contain nicotine [are] addictive or dependence producing” (Finding 2). (Phase I Verdict Form, Doc. 35, Ex. 7 at 1-2). The jury also answered “yes” to each of the following questions, which were asked about each separate Defendant: • Did the Defendant in question “place cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous” (Finding 3); • Did the Defendant in question “conceal or omit material information, not otherwise known or available, knowing that the material was false or misleading [sic], or fail[ ] to disclose a material fact concerning or proving the health effects and/or addictive nature of smoking cigarettes” (Finding 4(a)); • Did the Defendant in question enter “into an agreement to conceal or omit information regarding the health effects of cigarette smoking, or the addictive nature of smoking cigarettes, with the intention that smokers and members of the public rely to their detriment” (Finding 5(a)); • Did the Defendant in question sell or supply “cigarettes that were defective in that they were not reasonably fit for the uses intended” (Finding 6); and • Did the Defendant in question “fail[ ] to exercise the degree of care which a reasonable cigarette manufacturer would exercise under like circumstances” (Finding 8). (Id. at 2-11.) While these findings are reasonably specific, Defendants contend that they offer more questions than answers about what the jury actually determined. Taking, for example, the product defect finding (Finding 3), Defendants note that the Engle class did not pursue a single theory of defect, but rather alleged a number of discrete design defects. One such defect theory focused on the Defendants’ use of ammonia in their products. The Engle class claimed that Defendants used ammonia to increase the pH of cigarette smoke, which allegedly enhanced the impact of nicotine on the brain. However, “it was undisputed that ammonia was used only in certain brands of cigarettes and only at certain times.” (Doc. 35 at 15.) The jury could have accepted the ammonia defect theory while rejecting the others (such as the allegation of misplaced ventilation holes in “light” or “low-tar” cigarettes), and still answered “yes” to the defect question. Thus, Defendants contend, it is impossible to determine which allegation was “actually decided” by Finding 3. Further, even if it could be shown that Finding 3 rested on the Phase I jury’s acceptance of the ammonia allegations, that finding would have no relevance to the claims of a plaintiff who never smoked ammoniated cigarettes. Defendants therefore argue that instructing an Engle progeny jury, e.g., that Defendants “placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous” — without first requiring a showing that the Phase I jury actually determined the specific defect alleged by the progeny plaintiff — gives the findings an overly broad preclusive effect. Such a broad application of the Engle findings violates due process, Defendants conclude, because it fails to foreclose all alternative theories upon which the Phase I jury could have reached its verdict. Defendants’ concerns about the appropriate breadth of the Phase I findings, of course, were previously considered by the Eleventh Circuit in Bernice Brown II. There, the Court summarized the issue as follows: For example, Question 3 on the verdict form asked the jury: “Did one or more of the Defendant Tobacco Companies place cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous?” The jury answered “yes,” for every time period for every defendant except [one]. Under the defendants’ view, the only fact that the jury found was that they sold some cigarette that was defective and unreasonably dangerous during the time periods listed on the verdict form. That would mean that the finding may not establish anything more specific; it may not establish, for instance, that any particular type or brand of cigarette sold by a defendant during the relevant time period was defective and unreasonably dangerous. Under the plaintiffs’ broader view the jury’s finding must mean that all cigarettes the defendants sold were defective and unreasonably dangerous because there is nothing to suggest that any type or brand of cigarette is any safer or less dangerous than any other type or brand. Bemice Brown II, 611 F.3d at 1335. Despite acknowledging these practical difficulties created by the Phase I findings, the Eleventh Circuit did not decide the question of whether Defendants’ narrow view or plaintiffs’ broad view of their meaning was the more appropriate one. Instead, the Court interpreted Florida preclusion law to place the burden on plaintiffs to show with a “ ‘reasonable degree of certainty’ that the specific factual issue was determined in [their] favor,” and left it to this Court to determine, after a review of plaintiffs’ record-based showing, the true scope of the Phase I approved findings: “Only after Florida law is properly applied to determine the scope of the facts established by the approved findings can it be decided which, if any, elements of the claims are established by them.” Id. at 1336. Defendants acknowledge that the Eleventh Circuit’s record-based approach has been replaced, as a matter of Florida law, by Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown. Despite this, the Eleventh Circuit’s analysis remains relevant to the issue before this Court for two reasons: one, because Defendants take the position that an application of Florida law as the Eleventh Circuit outlined it would be consistent with due process (and conversely, that this Court’s failure to follow Bernice Brown II would be inconsistent with due process); and two, because plaintiffs take the position that they can nevertheless satisfy the Eleventh Circuit’s “reasonable degree of certainty” requirements through a “Brown Proffer.” Thus, before addressing the merits of Defendants’ due process arguments, the Court briefly considers whether plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer satisfies the Eleventh Circuit’s interpretation of Florida preclusion law so as to obviate the “lurking constitutional issue hoverfing] over the [Engle ] poker game.” Jimmie Lee Brown, 70 So.3d at 720 (May, C.J., specially concurring). C. Plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer Plaintiffs contend that their Brown Proffer, which relies primarily on citations to the Engle trial record and the Phase I trial judge’s Final Judgment and Amended Omnibus Order, “serves to demonstrate, to a reasonable degree of certainty, that [the Phase I approved findings] were actually litigated and decided in Plaintiffs’ favor.” (Doc. 45 at 1.) Defendants disagree, and think plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer “establishes] conclusively” that plaintiffs’ proposed use of the Phase I findings violates due process. (Doc. 50 at 1.) The reason for the disconnect is simple: because the parties have markedly different opinions about what the Phase I jury found, they also have markedly different opinions about what type of evidentiary showing was envisioned by the Eleventh Circuit in Bernice Brown II. Plaintiffs, unsurprisingly, take a broad view of what is precluded by the Phase I approved findings. They contend that Engle was, at bottom, “a case about addiction to cigarettes [containing] nicotine,” and it was the presence of that addictive agent in every cigarette — and the health consequences that resulted from the smokers’ addiction — which made all of Defendants’ products defective. (Doc. 65 at 56.) Plaintiffs assert that viewed in this context, Findings 1 and 2 (“[cigarettes that contain nicotine are addictive, and because they are addictive, they cause serious injury or death”) demonstrate that the jury necessarily determined “all the tobacco companies’ cigarettes were defective because they all contained addictive levels of nicotine.” (Id. at 71.) The remainder of the findings, plaintiffs posit, flow naturally from this overarching product defect finding; thus, Finding 3 would conclusively establish that Defendants “placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous” — precisely as the trial courts instructed the respective juries in Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown. Plaintiffs thus interpret Bernice Brovm II as requiring only that they demonstrate, to a reasonable degree of certainty, that all cigarettes sold by Defendants were defective (or relatedly, that the Engle record is replete with evidence that no such cigarette was safer than any other). Accordingly, plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer (Doc. 45) advances the general proposition (with record support) that “all of the evidence” in the Engle trial record “is focused on the addictiveness of the product and the serious injury that results therefrom. The Brown proffer is all about the defect and all about the fraud and the conspiracy related to the defect.” (Doc. 65 at 79-80.) Because of this generalized approach, plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer actually highlights the myriad defect, negligence, and concealment theories advanced during the Phase I trial in an attempt to prove that the approved findings were “well supported in the Engle trial record.” (Doc. 44 at 2.) Defendants acknowledge that Bernice Brown II allows plaintiffs to go beyond the Phase I findings and to comb the Engle trial record for evidence of what the jury determined; they further acknowledge that that record is rife with evidence of Defendants’ wrongful conduct. However, Defendants argue that the record-based showing envisioned by the Eleventh Circuit is one which isolates specific findings that the Engle jury must have made to reach its general verdict, because only those findings — assuming they are relevant to the progeny plaintiff in question— can be given preclusive effect. Under Defendants’ view, plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer “proves what Defendants have been saying all along, namely, that the Engle jury was presented with so many differing and contradictory theories that [no] progeny plaintiff can demonstrate to any degree of certainty what the jury ‘actually decided’ beyond the generic propositions reflected in the findings themselves.” (Doc. 55 at 3.) But Defendants go even further than this, claiming that even if plaintiffs were to compile the most thorough Brown Proffer imaginable to support their all-cigarettes-are-defective theory, it still would not satisfy either the Eleventh Circuit’s requirements or federal due process such that the Phase I findings could be applied in the manner plaintiffs seek In other words, their position is that due to the generality of the Phase I findings and the multiple theories of liability advanced in the trial record, plaintiffs simply can’t get there (due process) from here (a Brown Proffer). This Court could review plaintiffs’ Brown Proffer in detail to determine whether it “demonstrate^, to a reasonable degree of certainty, that [the Phase I approved findings] were actually litigated and decided in Plaintiffs’ favor,” and thus complies with Bernice Brown II. (Doc. 45 at 1.) However, Defendants’ position that no Broum Proffer could ever satisfy due process renders that exercise fruitless. Even if this Court were to accept outright plaintiffs’ interpretation of the Phase I findings as having determined “that all the tobacco companies’ cigarettes were defective because they all contained addictive levels of nicotine,” and thus, that a compliant Broum Proffer requires only confirmation that the Phase I jury was presented with “ample evidence” supporting the multiple theories upon which its findings could have rested, Defendants would respond with the same argument they are making now — that the Proffer improperly fails to foreclose alternate theories of liability, in violation of their due process rights. And we would be back to square one. Defendants agree that Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown constitute the current Florida issue preclusion law to be applied in Engle progeny cases, and acknowledge that Florida trial courts are giving preclusive effect to the Phase I findings in accordance with those decisions. Rather than decide the issue in this federal case on the basis of plaintiffs’ record-based showing-— a showing which Martin and Jimmie Lee Broum do not require — the more appropriate approach is to tackle head-on Defendants’ position that the application of Florida preclusion law in Martin and Jimmie Lee Brown is inconsistent with due process. The Court therefore declines plaintiffs’ invitation to hold that their Broum Proffer satisfies the requirements of Bernice Broum II or of federal due process, as neither finding is required to decide the issue before the Court. D. Due Process While “[s]tate courts are generally free to develop their own rules for protecting against the relitigation of common issues or the piecemeal resolution of disputes,” Richards, 517 U.S. at 797, 116 S.Ct. 1761, those rules and their attendant applications by subsequent state or federal courts are subject to a constitutional backstop: the Due Process Clause. Due process protects those rights “so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamenta