High Court Adds To Its Docket
The U.S. Supreme Court recently added to its docket cases involving judicial ethics, campaign finance law and criminal law. On Friday, the justices agreed to hear argument in a case involving whether the Constitution requires judges to recuse in cases involving parties that have donated to their campaigns. In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company, the court will consider whether a West Virginia appeals court judge should have removed himself from hearing a case involving a party that had donated $3 million to his election campaign. Legal Times Supreme Correspondent Tony Mauro details the case here. The high court also is set to hear argument in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission dealing with weather an anti-Hillary Clinton film is should be regulated under federal campaign finance law. The film, dubbed “Hillary: The Movie,” was created by a conservative political group and issued when she was seeking her party’s presidential nomination. The New York Times reported that the criminal law cases the high court agreed to hear include sentencing, drug distributions and the scope of the Constitution’s double jeopardy clause.