AG Troy King Befriends W. Va. Case Before U.S. Supreme Court

I haven’t seen this story mentioned anywhere in the Alabama press.

Short version (most of this information comes from the Charleston Gazette, January 19):

• Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, “spent more than $3 million of his own money” to help elect Brent Benjamin to the West Virginia Supreme Court over incumbent Justice Warren McGraw in 2004.
• Justice Benjamin was the deciding vote in two decisions that overturned a $50 million jury verdict against Massey Energy.
• The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 will consider whether the due process clause required Benjamin to recuse himself.
• Our Attorney General Troy King wanted state Attorneys General around the country to join him in filing an amicus brief. From the January 19 article in the Charleston Gazette:
  

  Alabama Attorney General Troy King wants attorneys general around the country to join him in supporting West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Brent Benjamin and Massey Energy in a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

  King believes the U.S. Supreme Court should not create any federal rules about when or why state court justices should remove themselves from hearing cases before them.

• The Charleston Gazette reported on Feb. 5 that King was “joined by attorneys general from Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan and Utah.”

Besides King and the six other AG’s, a few others have filed amicus briefs on behalf of the respondents, including ten current and former chief justices and justices.

There is a longer list of those who have filed amicus briefs for the other side, including 27 former chief justices and justices, the American Bar Association, Common Cause, Intel Corporation, the national League of Women Voters, Lockheed Martin, PepsiCo, and Wal-Mart. (Read about the involvement of some of these companies here.)

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has more on this.