Caperton Resource Site Details ‘Justice for Sale’ Case

Contact: Charles Hall, of Justice at Stake, chall@justiceatstake.org, (w) 202-588-9454, (cell) 202-384-4447.

Caperton v. Massey, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case on special-interest spending in the election of judges, is the subject of a new online resource site for media and the general public.

The site, called “Inside a Landmark Case on Money and the Courts,” is located at the Justice at Stake Campaign website. It provides history of the case, polling and spending data, and previous articles, TV reports and commentary on the case, as well as a section on how the original Caperton v. Massey dispute inspired a John Grisham novel. The site also includes a one-page fact sheet.

Caperton v. Massey involves a West Virginia coal executive who spent $3 million to elect a new state Supreme Court justice, while his company was seeking to overturn a $50 million judgment. The justice later cast the deciding vote to reverse the jury award.

Newspapers including the New York Times have said the case creates an appearance that justice is “for sale.”

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments March 3, on whether West Virginia Chief Justice Brent D. Benjamin had a constitutional obligation to remove himself from a case that involved someone who spent so much to elect him.

Support for that position has come from an unprecedented array of amicus briefs, including a group of 27 retired state Supreme Court justices, a group of businesses including Wal-Mart, Pepsico, Intel and Lockheed Martin, the American Bar Association, and civic reform groups. A “friend of the court” brief by Justice at Stake, and a list of the 27 groups that signed it, also is available.

Additional resources can be found at the home page of the Caperton v. Massey resource site.