High Court Rejects Appeal Claiming Bias by Outspoken State Justice
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Massey Energy Co. that had sought to disqualify a West Virginia justice who criticized the company’s chief executive officer.
The case was one of two before the court involving Massey and West Virginia justices. In the appeal denied Monday, Massey said Justice Larry Starcher should be disqualified from the company’s cases because he had criticized the CEO’s judicial campaign contributions, the Wall Street Journal reports. Starcher had said CEO Don Blankenship was “trying to buy influence like buying candy for children.”
Starcher had joined in a unanimous vote to deny review of a $260 million verdict against Massey that included a $100 million punitive award. Massey had also claimed the award was unconstitutionally excessive, Reuters reports.
The Supreme Court has accepted a separate case that contends a different West Virginia justice, Brent Benjamin, should have been required to recuse himself in a Massey appeal because he received more than $3 million in campaign contributions from Blankenship.
