This issue arose in 2004 when the Sierra Club asked Justice Antonin Scalia to step aside from deciding a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney and his energy policy task force. Scalia had gone duck hunting with Cheney in Louisiana shortly after the court agreed to hear his case.
Scalia refused to step aside, saying that the case involved the office of the vice president, not Cheney personally.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, June 12, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 45 words Type of Material: Correction
Supreme Court: An article in Tuesday's Section A about a Supreme Court ruling on whether elected judges can be on cases involving their donors said that in California, Superior Court judges are elected. Most are appointed by the governor, but they do stand for reelection.
Dissent, reaction
On Monday, he dissented along with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The ruling in the West Virginia case "will inevitably lead to an increase in allegations that judges are biased, however groundless those charges may be," Roberts wrote in the dissent, which Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. also joined.
Legal reformers praised the ruling. "This is an appropriately narrow ruling that represents a huge victory for a very basic principle: the right to a fair hearing," said James Sample, a lawyer for the Brennan Center in New York. "It sets a floor. Now, it is up to the states."
Contribution limits may not be the answer, he noted. Blankenship gave the legal limit of $1,000 directly to Benjamin's campaign. But he spent $3 million through two independent groups to fund mailings and ads in favor of Benjamin.
Benjamin ousted a justice who was seen as more favorable to plaintiffs.
Massey's case came before the five-member West Virginia Supreme Court twice. In the first ruling, the court by a 3-2 margin threw out the verdict on the grounds that the lawsuit was brought in the wrong place. When questions arose about fairness, the court agreed to rehear the matter.
Two justices stepped aside, but Benjamin refused to do so. When a reconstituted court heard the issue again, the result was another 3-2 ruling in favor of Massey, with Benjamin voting in the majority.
Hugh Caperton, whose small company was driven into bankruptcy by Massey, appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court after the West Virginia ruling.
The case of Caperton vs. A.T. Massey Coal split Kennedy's colleagues along the usual liberal-conservative lines, with Kennedy joining the liberal bloc. Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer signed his opinion.
The high court's ruling today sent the matter back to the West Virginia court, with the requirement that Benjamin step aside.
The decision does not directly affect federal judges because none of them run for election.
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david.savage@latimes.com
