Court: Judges must avoid appearance of bias

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court enhanced the ability of litigants to challenge judges as potentially biased because of campaign contributions, as it ruled 5-4 that a West Virginia judge who won election with big-money support from a coal company executive should have sat out the company's case.

The high court for the first time set down a rule for disqualifications arising from money judges receive as they campaign for election to the bench. The court said judges must pull out of a dispute when "a serious risk of actual bias" arises because "a person with a personal stake in a particular case had a significant and disproportionate influence" in getting the judge on the bench to hear the case.

Numerous questions remain about how the majority's new rule may affect the millions of dollars spent on state judicial elections nationwide or requests in specific cases for judges to sit out. Thirty-nine states elect at least some of their judges.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy emphasized the importance of public confidence in the courts and objective criteria to avoid the appearance of bias, as well as actual bias. Dissenting justices complained that the majority's standard was too vague. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for dissenters, offered 40 questions raised by the majority opinion, including "How do we determine whether a given (campaign) expenditure is 'disproportionate'? Disproportionate to what?"

Monday's groundbreaking decision comes amid increasing debate over potential corruption in state judicial elections by wealthy contributors.

The Kennedy majority acknowledged that its standard would have to be worked out in lower courts in future cases. In the West Virginia case, however, Kennedy said it was clear that constitutional due process of law was violated when state Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin cast the deciding vote to overturn a $50 million jury verdict against a company whose chief executive had heavily backed Benjamin in an election.

CEO Don Blankenship had contributed $3 million to unseat incumbent Democratic Judge Warren McGraw in his 2004 race against Benjamin, a Republican. Two years earlier, Blankenship's A.T. Massey Coal had lost a fraud lawsuit to Hugh Caperton and his Harman Mining Co.