A judge’s publicized fraternizing with a litigant can doom his reelection bid.
Evidence
A case in point occurred in West Virginia in 2008. Chief Justice Elliott Maynard finished a distant third in the Democratic primary following the publication of a photo of him vacationing on the French Riviera with Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy. Despite the close connection between Maynard and Blankenship, the Chief Justice participated in a case involving Massey Energy, joining a 3-2 majority that dismissed a lawsuit against the company by Harman Mining Company. In the primary campaign, Maynard’s opponents focused on this apparent conflict of interest and on the ethical questions it raised, and voters denied him reelection. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 584 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Voter backlash can remove judges who sit on cases involving their benefactors — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 584
Related
Broader Connections
- Voter backlash can remove judges who sit on cases involving their benefactors
#exemplifies(0.90) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 584