Ethics

Supreme Court considers campaign contributions to judges

By Ed Brayton

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a landmark case over whether state judges must recuse themselves from cases involving those who have made large contributions to their campaigns. A group of 27 former chief justices and justices of state supreme courts is urging the high court to rule that judges must recuse themselves in such cases.

The case involves a lawsuit in West Virginia, where a large energy company lost a $50 million fraud judgment. After the verdict was handed down but before the appeals court could hear the case, the owner of the energy company donated $3 million to the campaign of a candidate for the same court that heard the appeal. The judge refused to recuse himself from the case and he cast the deciding vote as the appeals court reversed the jury award from the lower court.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 09, 2009 (boomark / email).