The high court dismissed the Philip Morris appeal without
issuing an opinion, ending the third appeal the company had
secured before the Supreme Court in its fight to reign in an
award by an Oregon jury."Awright, class," as my ninth grade
science teacher, Papi Castro, used to say in his mellifluous
Bronx accent, "get dis, and geddit good": a "rein" is a leather
strap used to control a horse's movement, and to "rein in" means
to check or control something; to "reign" (the "g" is pronounced
like that in "gnu") is to possess sovereign power, as a monarch.
So, when Philip Morris petitioned the Supreme Court to limit a
jury award, it sought to rein, not reign, it in. I've often seen
"reign" used where its homonym, "rein", is intended. This is
likely because, in one sense, the words are near synonyms. Used
as a verb, "rein" means to control; to "reign" is also to
exercise control. One expression in which "reign" shows up
frequently is "to give [or allow] free reign [sic]." In this
instance, "rein" and "reign" mean