Friday, November 14, 2014

It's Harder to Buy You a Federal Judge, Don

Donald Blankenship, a former chief executive of Massey Energy Co, was indicted on Thursday on charges he violated federal mine safety laws prior to the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners at the company's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.
Blankenship spent a frigging fortune buying contributing to state judges' campaign funds, including $3 million on one state supreme court judge that got the attention of the Supremes.* As much as it was possible to do, Blankenship owned the politicians in West Virginia.

But it's a little harder to get to a federal judge.
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* Back before they ruled that money = speech.
on or about

4 comments:

  1. Expatriate Owl11/14/2014 8:31 AM

    For better (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Learned Hand, Benjamin Cardozo, Thomas Walter Swan, Dolores Sloviter, Richard Posner) or for worse (Sonia So-So Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Alcee Hastings, Samuel Kent, Abe Fortas), judges on the federal bench don't need to run for election or re-election because their appointments can only end with death, resignation, or impeachment.

    State judges need to win political beauty contests.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike R11/14/2014 11:55 AM

    Gee whiz owl you for Scalia, Alito, Thomas and Roberts in your list of for worsers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Expatriate Owl11/14/2014 12:15 PM

    Mike, these were just off the top of my head at the moment.

    Maybe some day, if ever I really really have the time, I will go through all of the Federal judges, past and present [www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudgeships/BiographicalDirectoryOfJudges.aspx ] and classify each one as Good, Bad, or Indifferent.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mike R11/14/2014 1:56 PM

    Just thought I would throw in a couple of my own who deserved a high ranking in the category of those who should retire and spend more time with their families.

    ReplyDelete

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