Opinion of STEVENS, J. exposure to punitive damages. Nor did it indicate that there is a point on the spectrum of deliberate or recklessly indifferent conduct that qualifies as "egregious." Thus, while behavior that merits that opprobrious label may provide probative evidence of wrongful motive, it is not a necessary prerequisite to proving such a motive under the 1991 Act. To the extent that any treatise or federal, state, or "common-law" case might suggest otherwise, it is wrong. There are other means of proving that an employer willfully violated the law. An employer, may, for example, express hostility toward employment discrimination laws or conceal evidence regarding its "true" selection procedures because it knows they violate federal law. Whatever the case, so long as a Title VII plaintiff proffers sufficient evidence from which a jury could conclude that an employer acted willfully, judges have no place making their own value judgments regarding whether the conduct was "egregious" or otherwise presents an inappropriate candidate for punitive damages; the issue must go to the jury. If we accept the jury's appraisal of the evidence in this case and draw, as we must when reviewing the denial of a jury instruction, all reasonable inferences in petitioner's favor, there is ample evidence from which the jury could have concluded that respondent willfully violated Title VII. Petitioner emphasized, at trial and in her briefs to this Court, that respondent took "a tangible employment action" against her in the form of denying a promotion. Brief for Petitioner 47. Evidence indicated that petitioner was the more qualified of the two candidates for the job. Respondent's decisionmakers, who were senior executives of the Association, were known occasionally to tell sexually offensive jokes and referred to professional women in derogatory terms. The record further supports an inference that these executives not only deliberately refused to consider petitioner fairly and to promote her because she is a woman, but manipulated the job requirements and conducted a Opinion of STEVENS, J. "sham" selection procedure in an attempt to conceal their misconduct. There is no claim that respondent's decisionmakers violated any company policy; that they were not acting within the scope of their employment; or that respondent has ever disavowed their conduct. Neither respondent nor its two decisionmakers claimed at trial any ignorance of Title VII's requirements, nor did either offer any "good-faith" reason for believing that being a man was a legitimate requirement for the job. Rather, at trial respondent resorted to false, pretextual explanations for its refusal to promote petitioner. The record, in sum, contains evidence from which a jury might find that respondent acted with reckless indifference to petitioner's federally protected rights. It follows, in my judgment, that the three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals correctly decided to remand the case to the District Court for a trial on punitive damages. See 108 F. 3d 1431, 1440 (CADC 1997). To the extent that the Court's opinion fails to direct that disposition, I respectfully dissent. II In Part II-B of its opinion, the Court discusses the question whether "[t]he plaintiff must impute liability for punitive damages to respondent" under "agency principles." Ante, at 539. That is a question that neither of the parties has ever addressed in this litigation and that respondent, at least, has expressly disavowed. When prodded at oral argument, counsel for respondent twice stood firm on this point. “[W]e all agree," he twice repeated, "that that precise issue is not before the Court" Tr. of Oral Arg. 49. Nor did any of the 11 judges in the Court of Appeals believe that it was applicable to the dispute at hand-presumably because promotion decisions are quintessential "company acts," see 139 F. 3d 958, 968 (CADC 1998), and because the two executives who made this promotion decision were the executive direc Opinion of STEVENS, J. tor of the Association and the acting head of its Washington office. Id., at 974, 979 (Tatel, J., dissenting). See also 108 F. 3d, at 1434, 1439. Judge Tatel, who the Court implies raised the agency issue, in fact explicitly (and correctly) concluded that "[t]his case does not present these or analogous circumstances." 108 F. 3d, at 1439. The absence of briefing or meaningful argument by the parties makes this Court's gratuitous decision to volunteer an opinion on this nonissue particularly ill advised. It is not this Court's practice to consider arguments-specifically, alternative defenses of the judgment under review-that were not presented in the brief in opposition to the petition for certiorari. See this Court's Rule 15.2. Indeed, on two occasions in this very Term, we refused to do so despite the fact that the issues were briefed and argued by the parties. See South Central Bell Telephone Co. v. Alabama, 526 U. S. 160, 171 (1999); Roberts v. Galen of Va., Inc., 525 U. S. 249, 253-254 (1999) (per curiam). If we declined to reach alternative defenses under those circumstances, surely we should do so here. Nor is it accurate for the Court to imply that the Solicitor General, representing Government amici, advocates a course similar to that which the Court takes regarding the agency question. Cf. ante, at 540. The Solicitor General, like the parties, did not brief any agency issue. At oral argument, he correspondingly stated that the issue "is not really presented here." Tr. of Oral Arg. 19. He then responded to the Court's questions by stating that the Federal Government believes that whenever a tangible employment consequence is involved § 1981a incorporates the "managerial capacity" principles espoused by §217 C of the Restatement (Second) of Agency. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 23. But to the extent that the Court tinkers with the Restatement's standard, it is rejecting the Government's view of its own statute without giving it an opportunity to be heard on the issue. Opinion of STEVENS, J. Accordingly, while I agree with the Court's rejection of the en banc majority's holding on the only issue that it confronted, I respectfully dissent from the Court's failure to order a remand for trial on the punitive damages issue. Syllabus ALBERTSON'S, INC. v. KIRKINGBURG CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 98-591. Argued April 28, 1999-Decided June 22, 1999 Before beginning a truckdriver's job with petitioner, Albertson's, Inc., in 1990, respondent, Kirkingburg, was examined to see if he met the Department of Transportation's basic vision standards for commercial truckdrivers, which require corrected distant visual acuity of at least 20/40 in each eye and distant binocular acuity of at least 20/40. Although he has amblyopia, an uncorrectable condition that leaves him with 20/200 vision in his left eye and thus effectively monocular vision, the doctor erroneously certified that he met the DOT standards. When his vision was correctly assessed at a 1992 physical, he was told that he had to get a waiver of the DOT standards under a waiver program begun that year. Albertson's, however, fired him for failing to meet the basic DOT vision standards and refused to rehire him after he received a waiver. Kirkingburg sued Albertson's, claiming that firing him violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). In granting summary judgment for Albertson's, the District Court found that Kirkingburg was not qualified without an accommodation because he could not meet the basic DOT standards and that the waiver program did not alter those standards. The Ninth Circuit reversed, finding that Kirkingburg had established a disability under the Act by demonstrating that the manner in which he sees differs significantly from the manner in which most people see; that although the ADA allowed Albertson's to rely on Government regulations in setting a job-related vision standard, Albertson's could not use compliance with the DOT regulations to justify its requirement because the waiver program was a legitimate part of the DOT's regulatory scheme; and that although Albertson's could set a vision standard different from the DOT's, it had to justify its independent standard and could not do so here. Held: 1. The ADA requires monocular individuals, like others claiming the Act's protection, to prove a disability by offering evidence that the extent of the limitation on a major life activity caused by their impairment is substantial. The Ninth Circuit made three missteps in determining that Kirkingburg's amblyopia meets the ADA's first definition of disability, i. e., a physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits" a major life activity, 42 U. S. C. § 12101(2)(A). First, |