Post-Caperton Judicial Education

From the web page of the Ohio Supreme Court:

An Indiana University law school professor will offer hisperspectives on judicial disqualification and recusal issues –including a recently decided U.S. Supreme Court recusal case – at theclosing session this week of the annual common pleas court judgessummer meeting.

Professor Charles Geyh will lead a discussion on judicial ethics and speech on Friday. Part of his remarks will center on the Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. case out of West Virginia.

TheU.S. Supreme Court ruled June 8 that elected judges should disqualifythemselves from ruling in cases involving people who have contributedhuge sums of money to support a judge’s election or re-electioncampaign. In the 5-4 decision, the justices concluded that a WestVirginia Supreme Court of Appeals justice should not have taken part ina dispute between two coal companies because the owner of one of thefirms had spent $3 million to help elect the justice.

Inremarks to the media before the case was argued, Geyh said the case has“wide-ranging implications for the future of judicial elections,judicial impartiality and public confidence in the courts. Withjudicial elections becoming ever more contentious and expensiveaffairs, and with nearly 90 percent of the public thinking that a judgeis influenced by their campaign contributions, much hangs in thebalance.”

The Ohio Common Pleas Judges Association three-dayeducational program also features sessions on Rules of Evidence andcase law, a civil law update, an Ohio Judicial Conference update, HouseBill 130 and other felony sentencing bills, an Ohio courts update, andwhat works in reducing recidivism.

(Mike Frisch)