Constitutional Law

High Court Won't Consider Second W.Va. Judicial Bias Case

The U.S. Supreme Court will not review of a case involving an accusation of bias against a West Virginia Supreme Court justice. The Associated Press reported that the high court refused to review a $260 million jury verdict against coal company Massey Energy. The company had urged the high court to review the jury verdict, arguing that West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Larry Starcher should have disqualified himself from a case involving the coal company because he had referred to its executive director, Don L. Blankenship, as a clown, evil and stupid. Earlier this year, the high court announced it would hear a case involving Massey. In that case, Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company, Justice Brent D. Benjamin had also refused to disqualify himself from hearing cases involving the coal company even though he received more than $3 million from Blankenship to win his state Supreme Court seat. The high court must decide in the Caperton case whether the Constitution’s due process clause required Benjamin to recuse himself in a case involving Massey.  

Full post as published by ACS Blog on December 02, 2008 (boomark / email).