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US SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST 'JUDGE BUYING' IN WV |
| (06/09/2009) |
| By Bob Weaver The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a West Virginia Supreme Court justice shouldn't have participated in court decisions after receiving about $3 million from Massey Coal for his campaign. Justice Brent Benjamin had declined to recuse himself from a $50 million dollar lawsuit against Massey. The court in a split 5-4 decision said it created a serious risk for Mr. Benjamin to be biased in the case. "Just as no man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, similar fears of bias can arise when...a man chooses the judge in his own cause," Justice Kennedy wrote. "And applying this principle to the judicial election process, there was a serious, objective risk of actual bias that required Justice Benjamin's recusal," he continued. Benjamin's case has risen to national attention with TV and print media as an example of corrupt politics, although Benjamin maintains no wrongdoing with his decisions. "Politics has always been a dirty game. Now justice is, too," wrote author John Grisham, whose latest novel "The Associate" is based on Massey's coal money financing a Supreme Court justice. In Grisham's novel, a Wall Street predator is convinced the court is not friendly enough and he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket. The court's four most conservative justices dissented, saying the decision created an unworkable rule for when judges should step aside. "This will inevitably lead to an increase in allegations that judges are biased, however groundless those charges may be," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in dissent. Monday's Supreme Court decision reversed the West Virginia court ruling for Massey and sent the case back for further proceedings.
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