The Supreme Court put elected judges on notice Monday they must step aside from deciding cases involving big-money donors who helped them win their jobs.
The decision comes after a decade in which corporate interests and trial lawyers have waged increasingly costly campaigns to elect supreme court seats in 21 states. The justices said Monday there is a risk of bias–and certainly the appearance of unfairness–if one side has spent millions to elect the judge.
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“Just as no man is allowed to be the judge of his own cause,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy, no person should be permitted to “choose the judge in his own cause.”
The 5-4 decision came in the case of Don Blankenship, a coal company executive who spent $3 million to oust one West Virginia Supreme Court justice and to elect his replacement. At the time, Blankenship and his Massey Coal Co. were appealing a $50 million jury verdict for having driven a small competitor into bankruptcy. New Justice Brent Benjamin cast the deciding vote–twice–to throw out the verdict against Massey.