Selva Oscura: Judicial Campaign Contributions, Disqualification, and Due Process
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Duquesne Law Review
Abstract
This article will focus on the case of Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co., in which the U.S. Supreme Court applied the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the refusal of a West Virginia high court judge, Brent Benjamin, to grant a motion to disqualify himself based upon receipt by his election campaign of financial support in excess of $3 million from Massey's Chairman and CEO, Don L. Blankenship. The Court held 5-4 that sitting in judgment on the case under such extreme circumstances created a "serious, objective risk of actual bias" that was constitutionally intolerable. Caperton thus strongly signals the importance, both to the States and to public perceptions of the judiciary in general, of having rules in State judicial codes that can contain the mischief of excessive campaign support in judicial elections. That importance has increased exponentially in the wake of the Court's even more recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC. That case did not concern judicial elections; rather it involved restrictions on the dissemination and showing, during the presidential campaign primaries leading up to the November 2008 general election, of a documentary entitled "Hillary: The Movie." The Court held that statutory limitations on independent campaign expenditures by corporations and labor unions violated the First Amendment. Part II of this article will describe early (and occasionally surprisingly contentious) reactions by various State Supreme Courts to the Caperton decision and the underlying issues of disqualification and judicial election campaigns. Part III will discuss the background of the Caperton case and Justice Kennedy's majority opinion. Part IV will address Chief Justice Roberts's imposing dissent and will critique the validity of many of those forty questions. Finally, Part V will suggest some possible revisions to the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct to deal explicitly with the fallout from Caperton and Citizens United.
First Page
767
Last Page
838
Publication Date
Fall 2010
Recommended Citation
Fisher, Keith R., "Selva Oscura: Judicial Campaign Contributions, Disqualification, and Due Process" (2010). Faculty Articles. 337.
https://scholarship.stu.edu/faculty_articles/337