Brief Fact Summary. A judge in a state court was to hear a case in which the defendant had been ordered to pay $50 million. He refused to recuse himself from the bench though the person involved had backed his election to the bench with a donation of $3 million. The plaintiff alleged a breach of justice.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. A state judge is prohibited by the constitution from hearing a case in which the financial interests of any of his major election campaign backers are involved.
Issue. Is it against the constitutional rights for a state judge to hear a case which involves the financial interests of one of his big backers for election
Held. (Kennedy, J.) Yes. A state judge acts unconstitutionally when he serves on a case involving the financial interests of one of his major election campaign backers. The Due Process Clause makes it necessary that the trial should be fair and impartial. In the case of Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510 (1927), the conclusion was drawn that this clause makes use of the common law rule that a judge must disqualify himself from any case where he has an interest, whether of a financial, personal, direct or substantial kind. This rule does not provide for recusal in case of personal bias or prejudice without an interest of the kind above. The Court went on over the years to add other situations where it would be necessary for a judge to recuse himself. The objective view of these cases gives rise to the conclusion that it is so probable that the judge will have actual bias that he could not serve in these cases. Some such situations are if a judge has a financial interest in the outcome of a case, even if the interest is so small as not to be considered personal or direct interest; if a judge has been part of an earlier judicial process involving a criminal contempt case, con) flict might be present and recusal is required. The campaign contribution which exerted a major influence in Benjamin’s election was from a person who had a personal stake in the case, and was at a time when the present appeal was imminent. The enormous relative percentage of the contribution, out of the total contributed sum and the total election expenditure, as well as the apparent influence of that contribution on the outcome, that is, Benjamin’s election, arouses inquiry as to the presence of bias. It is at least possible that it was this large contribution which resulted in replacing the incumbent judge with Benjamin. This makes the possibility of bias sufficiently strong that Justice Benjamin must be recused in order to guarantee a free and fair trial. This is especially so in view of the fact that the next step in the case was the Supreme Court of Appeals once the post-trial motions had been decided. Blankenship must have realized that if not recused, Justice Benjamin would be on the bench which reviewed his case. This is easily taken to mean that Blankenship practically chose his judge, and that the serious fisk of actual bias required Justice Benjamin’s recusal.
The Court held that the fact that the mayor in Tumey shared directly in the fees and costs did not define the limits of the principle.
View Full Point of LawConcurrence. N/A
Discussion. The importance of the verdict is in that the Supreme Court here set a new standard for recusal of judges by ruling that a judge should have removed himself from the hearing of a suit which had as one party a businessman who had helped him in his election to the tune of $3 million. This is likely to have many results since 39 states currently practice judicial election.