Judicial Advertising
Judicial candidates, political parties, and interest groups have increasingly invested in television advertising to influence campaigns for the bench. During each election cycle since 2000, the Center has studied and published reports on the sources, costs, and content of those advertisements. We post video and storyboards of the ads, as well as weekly election-season press releases with analyses of the data and campaign commentary. We also analyzed television advertising about the nominees for U.S. Supreme Court in 2005.
Justice Brent Benjamin of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia refused to recuse himself from the appeal of a $50 million jury verdict in this case, even though the CEO of the lead defendant spent $3 million supporting his campaign. Did Benjamin’s failure to recuse violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Heck—Right to Take WI Legislature to Task
In his Capital Times op-ed, Jay Heck takes shots at Wisconsin’s legislature for failing to act on a campaign finance reform bill, and accuses the group of quietly, “smothering it with a pillow”....
Certain American values transcend partisan divisions. One is that money should not influence the courts. But with record sums pouring into judicial elections, the ideal of due process is giving way to a perception of pay-to-play justice…
Coalition Urges Supreme Court to Review West Virginia Case
The Center for Justice, along with the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and the Reform Institute, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in a case with national ramifications regarding one of the most basic rights in any system of law: the right to a fair hearing before an impartial arbiter.
BC Proposal Offers Fresh Ideas and Reforms to End the Growing Threat to Judicial Impartiality
In an effort to restore trust in our justice system, the Brennan Center for Justice has published a new report that seeks to eliminate even the appearance of an imbalanced judiciary with consistent principles and rules for when a judge should step down from a case.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Raises New Questions About Judicial Election Reform
An African American justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court lost his bid for re-election Tuesday in a racially charged and interest group-dominated campaign that raises new questions about the role of money in judicial campaigns.
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Selected Press and Commentary on Caperton v. Massey
Stories covering the West Virginia case.
Incumbent Idaho Supreme Court Justice Joel Horton and his challenger, 2nd District Judge John Bradbury, ran for a contested seat on the Idaho Supreme Court.
Buying Time—2008: West Virginia
During West Virginia’s Democratic primary, Fmr. Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman and trial lawyer, Menis Ketchum, secured the top two spots for the fall ballot in November.