Litigation

Caperton: First Reflections

By Charlie Hall

“This is a tremendous victory.”

That statement, by Justice at Stake Executive Director Bert Brandenburg, captures the essence of today’s landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Caperton v. Massey. (To see Justice at Stake’s full press release, click here.)

As the Supreme Court’s full written opinion makes clear, not all judges will have to step aside from any case involving campaign contributors. But for the first time ever, the court recognized that heavy spending by campaign backers with business before the court can force a judge to step aside, in order to guarantee a fair trial in an impartial court.

Given all the spending by special interests in recent decades specifically to influence the makeup of state courts, this is a historic recognition by the Supreme Court that the current system is broken. The ruling also is a historic extension of recusal law, which had never been applied to cases involving judicial election spending.

Justice at Stake is posting in stages today. In a bit, we’ll outline key quotes in Justice Kennedy’s opinion.

Justice Kennedy’s opinion also swept aside arguments by Massey’s lawyers that actual bias by a judge had to be demonstrated. It said the amount of spending by Massey CEO Don Blankenship, about $3 million, created a “probability of bias” that was unacceptable. And it cited the American Bar Association model code, which says judges should avoid the “appearance of impropriety,” in saying that most future recusal motions can be addressed at the state level.

To learn more about the case, you can also visit Justice at Stake’s online Caperton resource page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 08, 2009 (boomark / email).