Legal News

Caperton: The Final Chapter

By Nathan Koppel

Before Citizens United consumed so much of our attention, we fixated on the Caperton ruling ─ the landmark Supreme Court ruling that established new standards for when judges have to recuse themselves from cases involving their campaign contributors.

The Caperton ruling has prompted states nationwide to look at establishing more rigorous disqualification standards for judges.

To recap, Caperton involved allegations by West Virginia mining executive Hugh Caperton that he was run out of business by Massey, a large coal producer. A West Virginia jury awarded Caperton $50 million, but then things got really interesting. The West Virginia Supreme Court later reversed the verdict, with Justice Brent Benjamin (pictured) refusing to recuse himself even though he had received $3 million in campaign support from Massey executive Don Blankenship.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Benjamin's refusal to step off the case violated the 14th Amendment guarantee of due process. His decision to hear a case involving such a significant campaign supporter, the majority ruled, created "a serious risk of actual bias." (Here’s a WSJ article on the ruling.)

Benjamin has denied that he was biased by Blankenship’s campaign support. .

Today, the case came full circle, when the West Virginia Supreme Court declined to reconsider its earlier ruling in favor of Massey.

Here's a report on today’s decision from Legal Newsline.

Caperton told the publication he was not surprised by the court's refusal to reconsider its decision in favor of Massey. “They should be ashamed of their actions.” Caperton said.

Massey applauded the decision. Massey said it is happy to put an end to the matter.

“The Company is pleased with this result and happy to have this matter finalized,” said Shane Harvey, Massey vice president and general counsel.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 11, 2010 (boomark / email).