Practice Management

Supreme Court's Massey Coal recusal decision: 5-4

By Dan Hull

Is that an elected state judge in your pocket? Or you just happy to see me?

Quick and dirty re: elected state judges and campaign money. We've followed and written a lot on this U.S. Supreme Court case about an elected state supreme court judge and campaign money recipient who failed to disqualify himself in arguably suspect circumstances. The Court ruled on Monday that a West Virginia judge should indeed have disqualified himself from hearing an appeal of a $50 million jury verdict against an a coal company because its CEO had been a major campaign donor. WAC? thinks that the popular election of state judges--permitted in some aspect in a clear majority of the states--give the appearance of justice being "for sale". Elected judges can be especially for "bad" for good clients who do business all over the U.S. and the world.

And, of course, for business defendants who have no substantial ties to a state forum, and no jurisdictional recourse to a federal court. We are genuinely concerned about the issue--and often write about it with a mix of frustration and optimism. We simply believe that state systems that select judges via popular elections are something America outgrew over a century ago--and that such regimes, in the states that have them, set a bad example for the rest of the world. Although WAC? likes the result in Massey Coal, we're a bit surprised the vote was 5-4 to require recusal of the judge in question. More when we can get to it. In the meantime, see the Slip Opinion in the June 8 decision in Caperton v. Massey Coal, Inc. See also WSJ Law Blog, which cheered us up in yesterday's "Massey Coal Ruling Getting Thumbs Up in Judicial Circles".

Full post as published by What About Clients? on June 10, 2009 (boomark / email).