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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that elected judges must step aside from cases when large campaign contributions from interested parties create the appearance of bias.
By a 5-4 vote in a case from West Virginia, the court said that a judge who remained involved in a lawsuit filed against the company of the most generous supporter of his election deprived the other side of the constitutional right to a fair trial.
And here's a WSJ blog entry on the case - I'm including it because if you go to the page, it also includes links to earlier entries on the case. (And, of course, because the WSJ is so biased toward business, it's fun to see them try to digest the news...): http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/...
Although we were living in Tennessee at the time, I remember driving by the plant not long after the accident on our way to visit my grandparents in Paden City. You can still see where the ring marks the spot on the 2nd cooling tower where construction was halted for 17 months.
Now that West Virginia is my home, each time I drive by when I am in the area, I remember those days. For that part of the Ohio Valley, this was their 9/11. Just as the Silver Bridge collapse resonates in Point Pleasant. Just as the Buffalo Creek flood is remembered in southern WV, the Marshall plane crash in Huntington, and more recently the tragedy at Sago.
They are all tragedies, and all have some common elements beyond their loss in human life.
Each resulted in changes to protect workers and others. Unfortunately, they also were followed by their fair share of foot dragging and blaming workers (or pilots). Corporate responsibility was minimal at best, and reforms that would protect lives were less than swiftly implemented.
In the case of Willow Island, it was not until 1990, 12 years after the tragedy that OSHA finally adopted revised scaffolding rules prompted by the collapse. It also took 10 long years, until 1988, for new rules on concrete and masonry construction, which weren't adopted until after 28 more workers died in the collapse of the L'Ambiance Plaza, a 16-story apartment complex in Bridgeport, Conn.
Unfortunately, my beloved state of West Virginia has too many tragedies and not enough proactive action to help the workers whose lives are deemed less important than corporate profit. On the eve of Workers' Memorial Day, our policy makers seem more interested in "Unleashing Capitalism" in WV than helping ensure that future tragedies are avoided.
Did you know that 47 workers died in WV during the past year? That's almost another Willow Island's worth of personal tragedy, but almost no one is paying attention.
Making matters worse is the current status of our WV Supreme Court, where it's become acceptable for a Justice to take a European vacation with Paul BearerDon Blankenship, in addition to election activities that are now the stuff of a John Grisham novel.
Since fact is proving stranger than fiction in WV (again), perhaps we can convince the fictional character of Alan Shore from Boston Legal to speak to the WV Supreme Court as he does in this great clip featuring his arguments before Justice Roberts and the other Supremes.
From today's Gazette, here's the story of Don Blankenship's former maid appealing to the state Supreme Court for unemployment benefits. However, he might have got there first...
WV Public Radio announced that Spike Maynard was going to recuse himself in the Harman case involving Massey Energy. More detail should be available soon.
Update - WV Public Radio reports as follows..
Justice Maynard recuses himself from Massey case - 1/18 By Anna Sale Justice Spike Maynard announced Friday he will recuse himself from a legal dispute between Massey Energy and Hugh Caperton's company Harman Mining. “It is not enough to do Justice,” Maynard wrote. “Justice must also satisfy the appearance of justice.” Fax from Maynard
A copy of his recusal can be read by clicking on the pdf file tab at the end of the item.
Don't miss the latest installment in the AP coverage of the controversy about the connections between Justice Spike Maynard and Massey CEO Don Blankenship. Here's the punchline:
Since his election as justice in 1996, Maynard has helped decide at least eight cases at the Supreme Court involving Massey or one of its subsidiaries, an AP review shows. Maynard voted in Massey's favor in all eight, dissenting from the court's ruling in four of those cases.
For those of us who enjoy watching life's rich pagent in West Virginia, there's no shortage of material these days--and it doesn't all have to be about WVU.
I don't know about y'all, but I've got to go with this one as reported by AP:
West Virginia's chief Supreme Court justice acknowledged meeting up with a coal company executive while vacationing in Europe, but said Tuesday that their friendship "has never influenced any decision I've made for the court."
I've already bought my season's tickets.
(There's more on all kinds of stuff at Goat Rope.)
See comments for pictures and links to more articles.
Suffering from a bit of insomnia tonight, I decided to get my obligatory round of news-reading out of the way a little early. So I'm working my way through the various sites I've bookmarked, and I come to the New York Times.
In what might be considered electronic "above-the-fold" story placement, this headline caught my eye: "Motion Ties W. Virginia Justice to Coal Executive."
I am not nearly as versed in the politics of West Virginia's coal industry as just about everybody here on this site, but somehow, in my heart, I knew this would be about Don Blankenship and Massey Energy.
Dropping all pretence of social relevance, Goat Rope is sticking to the theme of weirdness this week. In case you missed it, here's a recent item on a possible sighting of the Loch Ness monster, complete with a video clip. After more than 6 years of the Bush administration, nothing seems weird to me anymore...
WHATEVER... This is inside baseball for West Virginians. The masterful "just-the-facts" blog of all things pertaining to El Cabrero's beloved state is Lincoln Walks at Midnight, which has this item about state Supreme Court justice Brent Benjamin in which he claims that he won in 2004 not because of coal baron and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's money but rather due to the mistakes of his opponent, Warren McGraw.
Far be it from El Cabrero to deny that his opponent made a mistake or two, but I find the whole Loch Ness thing MUCH easier to believe.
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As you probably know, Sunday marked a sad anniversary. Thirty years ago, on April 27, 1978, 51 workers died tragically and unnecessarily in the 
