Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Inc.
United States Supreme Court
556 U.S. 868 (2009)
After a jury awarded Caperton and others (plaintiffs) $50 million against Massey Coal (defendant), Massey's chairman and CEO Don Blankenship spent over $3 million supporting Brent Benjamin's campaign for a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court — more than all of Benjamin's other supporters combined and more than both candidates' own campaign committees spent combined — shortly before Massey's appeal of that verdict would reach the court Benjamin was elected to. After Benjamin won and declined the plaintiffs' recusal requests, the West Virginia Supreme Court reversed the verdict twice, including in a divided 3-2 decision after rehearing.
Whether due process requires a judge's recusal from a case when a litigant's campaign spending to elect that judge was so disproportionately large that it created a serious risk the judge would not be impartial toward that litigant.