MinnLawyer Blog

With Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Eric Magnuson’s  decisions to recuse himself from the Franken/ Coleman  high court cases due to his role on the Canvassing Board, recusals have been much in the news here in Minnesota. So too has judicial campaigning. We are, after all, the state that spawned Republican Party of Minnesota, et al. v. White, et al.

Both those issues — recusals and judicial campaigns — are implicated in a West Virgina case that the U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear, Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.

West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Brent Benjamin declined to recuse himself from the appeal of the $50 million jury verdict, even though the CEO of the defendant company had pumped $3 million into his campaign for a seat on the court. The generous contribution came while the company was preparing to appeal the verdict against it. The court ruled 3-2 to overturn the verdict, with, yep, you guessed it, Benjamin casting the tie-breaking vote.

The issue at the heart of the case is when a judge has to recuse himself or herself from a case when someone connected to the case has made a massive campaign contribution to that judge.

There are a lot of high caliber amici, including, interestingly, the Conference of Chief Justices. The conference doesn’t often file amicus briefs, but this is an issue near and dear to its heart. The conference did not take a position on which party should win the case, but instead uses the brief to call on the high court to enunciate clear standards setting forth when due process requires judges to recuse themselves  because of campaign support. Click here for the conferences amicus brief “in support of neither party.”

Minnesota, which has a history of being very proactive on judicial-campaigning issues, recently adopted rules that may help the state steer clear of a West Virginia-like scenario. Minnesota Lawyer ran an article on the topic in its Dec.29 issue. (See “Court to Judges: Don’t follow the money.”)