Supreme Court Rules Judges Cannot Rule in Cases Pertaining to Major Campaign Contributors

June 8, 2009 by Matt Placek

Today the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that elected judges cannot rule in a case that involves a major campaign contributor. The case comes from West Virginia where West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin joined a 3 to 2 majority overturning a $50 million verdict against Massey Energy who was in dispute with Harmon Mining.

The case began to look suspicious when Justice Benjamin did not take himself off of the case that included Massey Energy, who’s CEO Don Blankenship, according to the New York Times, “had spent $3 million in the 2004 campaign attacking a West Virginia justice who was seeking re-election.” Justice Benjamin then won the 2004 election.

The majority opinion as written by Justice Anthony Kennedy stated that this case was exceptional in the volume of money that was contributed to Benjamin’s campaign, and that not every campaign contribution creates a probability of bias as this one does. Justice Kennedy did note that there was no exact proof that the campaign contribution of Mr. Blankenship had any effect on Justice Benjamin’s viewpoint on the case; however, he did remark that Justice Benjamin had a noticeable chance of being biased.

The dissenting opinion, written by Chief Justice Roberts, insisted that this ruling would lead to more cases of judicial impartiality no matter how baseless those claims might be. Justice Roberts also pointed out that this ruling could “erode public confidence in judicial impartiality.”

The case has been sent back to the West Virginia courts for further deliberation.