Litigation

Drug Giant Expands Ban on Judicial Donations

By Peter Hardin

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Caperton v. Massey decision, a major drugmaker will forego making political donations to state supreme court candidates.

The Merck PAC’s Contributions Committee “recently adopted a policy that would bar any Merck PAC or corporate political contributions to candidates running for the position of state supreme court justice,” Charles R. Grezlak, a Merck vice president for government affairs and policy, told the Center for Political Accountability newsletter.

The prior policy barred political contributions for state judiciary “elections at the local or regional appellate levels,” he said. The new policy was adopted after the Caperton decision and talks with CPA, a nonprofit group pushing transparency and accountability in corporate political spending.

In Caperton, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that campaign spending can damage a litigant?s right to a fair trial; at issue was a case involving a state Supreme Court justice in West Virginia. You may read about Caperton at Justice at Stake?s resource page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).