Conflict of Interest Resolved

Campus Report ^ | October 7, 2009 | Brittany Fortier

[bs9021]

Conflict of Interest Resolved

by: Brittany Fortier, October 07, 2009

Would you know bias when you see it? A majority of Supreme Court justices don’t seem to, particularly when it concerns their own judicial profession. Brad Smith, Professor of Law at Capital University Law School and former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), discussed the case of Caperton v. Massey Coal at the Cato Institute’s Supreme Court Review on September 17, 2009.

The case involved Massey Coal’s decision not to purchase Caperton’s mine located in Buchanan County, VA, after an extended period of negotiations. Caperton, alleging fraud and tortuous contract interference, eventually won a $50 million jury verdict against Massey. Massey CEO Don Blankenship appealed and the case made its way to the West Virginia Supreme Court.

Smith noted an article from the February 2009 edition of the ABA Journal, in which author John Gibeaut opined:

“Blankenship appealed until the last cow straggled home. Besides his efforts in the courtroom, Blankenship also plunged into judicial politics—West Virginia-style—raising some $3 million in 2004 on behalf of an unknown Charleston lawyer named Brent D. Benjamin, who wanted a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Both sides knew the case undoubtedly would wind up there.”

The article further alleged that Benjamin “violated Caperton’s 14th Amendment due process right by accepting the millions in campaign support from Blankenship, then deciding the case anyway.”

Smith called such statements contained in the ABA Journal article “seriously misleading” and “outright false.”...

[bruinbirdman]

A guy has a case on appeal to the state supreme court. There is an election for a seat on that court. The guy donated $1000 to the winning candidate for state supreme court judge and some $?00,000 to his political party.

The judge gets elected and rules (one of a panel) in favor of the donor in his case before the West Virginia Supreme Court. The judgement is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

USSC rules that due process rights were violated ie, the judge should have recused himself.

yitbos