Constitutional Law

Appearance of Judicial Bias Before High Court

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument today in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company, on whether an elected West Virginia Supreme Court justice, who did not disqualify himself from a case in which a campaign contributor was involved, violated the constitutional due process rights of the other litigants. The case was examined at a recent ACS event, which included Professor Charles Gardner Geyh of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law-Bloomington, and former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Richard Neely. Video of that panel event is available here.

Following the event, Geyh and Neely talked with ACSBlog about the case. Geyh noted that since the 1990s there has been an escalation of of money being funneled into judicial campaigns (more than 30 states have judicial elections). Geyh's interview with ACSBlog is below:

Former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Neely suggested that the large sums of money from the Massey coal company official that helped Brent Benjamin secure a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court likely spurred the high court's interest in the case. Neely's interview with ACSBlog follows:

Also, a guest blog post from American University law professor Amanda Frost on the Caperton case is available here.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 03, 2009 (boomark / email).