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Big coal case sheds light on money in politics -- and our courtrooms. Supreme Court rules to protect our judicial system and keep money out of the courtroom.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday, in a 5-4 decision, that significant campaign contributions to elected judges could pose a risk for judicial bias.
The court ruled on a case involving Massey Coal Company giving $3 million dollars to the campaign of a West Virginia Supreme Court judge. That same judge later voted to reverse a $50 million dollar judgment against the company. The money spent by Massey Coal Company President Don Blankenship was more than three times the amount spent by all of the judge's other supporters. The judge refused to recuse himself from the Massey Coal case.
This Massey Coal Company case has shed a national spotlight on the issue of money in politics -- and especially our courtrooms.
This ruling could be used to ensure that more elected judges recuse themselves from voting on cases in which their campaign contributions may pose a conflict of interest -- so that they are ruling on the issues and in the interest of the people -- not the largest donor.
KFTC members continue to work for a day when large corporations and the wealthy can't buy elections -- or judges.