Sherry Chandler

At the same place at the same time but not “together”

Here’s an interesting article from this morning’s NYTimes:

A justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court and a powerful coal-company executive met in Monte Carlo in the summer of 2006, sharing several meals even as the executive’s companies were appealing a $50 million jury verdict against them to the court.

A little more than a year later, the justice, Elliott E. Maynard, voted with the majority in a 3-to-2 decision in favor of the coal companies.

Justice Maynard, who is now West Virginia’s chief justice, and Don L. Blankenship, the chief executive of Massey Energy, were “vacationing together,” according to a motion seeking Justice Maynard’s disqualification, which was filed on Monday.

A spokesman for Massey Energy disputed that characterization.

“Both Blankenship and Justice Maynard were separately vacationing in the Monte Carlo area,” said the spokesman, Jeff Gillenwater. “They were not vacationing together. They did meet occasionally for meals — lunches and dinners.”

This frolicking in Monte Carlo while the miners they put out of work vacationed in Pigeon Forge, well, it doesn’t even pass the Scalia test:

In 2004, Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court refused to disqualify himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney, although the two had gone on a duck hunting trip together. Justice Scalia reasoned that disqualification was not required because Mr. Cheney had been sued in his official capacity. On the other hand, Justice Scalia wrote, “friendship is a ground for recusal of a justice where the personal fortune or the personal freedom of the friend is at issue.”

Mr. Blankenship was not named individually in Mr. Caperton’s suit. But he was a central figure in it, and his compensation includes shares and stock options. “The monetary effect on Blankenship is potentially enormous,” Professor Gillers said, referring to the November decision.

See my review of Missing Mountains on this same date last year. Massey Energy is big in mountaintop removal.

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