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The NAM filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a water pollution decision that upended well-settled due process principles. The appeal followed after the trial court departed from longstanding legal principles when it permitted the state of New Hampshire to hold Exxon liable for contamination involving the gasoline additive MTBE in private wells across the state, including non-existent potential future wells, based only on evidence from a small sample of wells and some statistical extrapolation by an expert witness. All manufacturers have a right to receive due process protection at trial and not be subjected to results-oriented shortcuts at trial such as “trial by formula.” The NAM’s brief argued that 1) the lower court’s decision cannot be reconciled with principles of due process that protect defendants at trial; 2) the case provides an opportunity for the Court to clarify that the due process clause forbids “trial by formula”; and 3) “trial by formula” distorts outcomes and encourages speculative litigation. The Supreme Court declined to hear this appeal.