Judges Are for Sale — and Special Interests Are Buying

[bemildred]

A new report details how big business and corporate lobbyists are packing courts with judges who put special interests ahead of the public interest

The Occupy Wall Street movement is shining a spotlight on how much influence big-money interests have with the White House and Congress. But people are not talking about how big money is also increasingly getting its way with the courts, which is too bad. It’s a scandal that needs more attention. A blistering new report details how big business and corporate lobbyists are pouring money into state judicial elections across the country and packing the courts with judges who put special interests ahead of the public interest.

A case in point: West Virginia. In 2007, the West Virginia Supreme Court, on a 3-2 vote, threw out a $50 million damage award against the owner of a coal company. Funny thing: the man who would have had to pay the $50 million had spent $3 million to help elect the justice who cast the deciding vote. The West Virginia ruling was so outrageous that in 2009 the United States Supreme Court overturned it. But that was unusual. In most cases, judges are free to decide cases involving individuals and groups that have paid big money to get them elected.

So who is paying? The new study – by New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, and the Justice at Stake Campaign, a non-partisan reform group – found that a small group of super spenders plays the biggest role, using their money to buy the kind of judges they want hearing their cases. These super spenders are the usual suspects: mainly big business, corporate lobbyists, and trial lawyers. Also high on the list: a disturbing category called “unknown.” In many states, disclosure laws are so weak that special interests can buy judicial elections without the public even finding out.

http://ideas.time.com/2011/10/31/judges-are-for-sale-and-special-interests-are-buying/

[valerief]

1. What a fuckin' toilet this country is. nt

[CrispyQ]

2. Well said. --nt

[xchrom]

3. One of the corner stone issues of our day. Nt

[Marazinia]

4. Justice as usual, which is to say none

Not surprising, nothing new, but incredibly sickening every time I think about it.