Ethics

The owner of the coal mine that was the site of the recent disaster in West Virginia in which over two dozen miners were killed is the Massey Energy Company.  Massey is the party that lost 5-4 in the Supreme Court in the Caperton case.  The president, CEO, and chairman of the board of Massey is Don Blankenship.  Blankenship spent $3,000,000 to elect a state supreme court judge who became part of the 3-2 majority that reversed a $50,000,000 judgment against Massey (the decision that was reversed by the Supreme Court on due process grounds).   Last year alone, Massey was cited for fifty serious safety violations.  Blankenship?s comment was, ?Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process.?