Buying Judicial Decisions
Meanwhile, has anyone ever done a study to determine if there is a correlation between campaign contributions and judicial decisions?
Why yes, as a matter of fact, someone has.
In fact, as the New York Times Reported last week in Looking Anew at Campaign Cash and Elected Judges, a couple of studies have shown a relationship.
For example, Vernon Palmer, a law professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, reviewed cases decided by the judges, and compare outcomes where no parties or lawyers had made contributions, with those cases where contributions had been made. Prof. Palmer found that some judge seemed to vote against his or her typical inclination to favor plaintiffs or defendants when a contribution was involved. For one judge, for example, the likelihood of a favorable outcome increased by 30% with each $1000 contributed.
Prof. Palmer’s conclusions mirrored those made following a review by the Times of the Ohio Supreme Court’s practices, after it was discovered that a $212 million verdict had been thrown out, with one of the appellate court judges having received sizable donations by the defendant’s CEO.
Prof. Palmer recommends that any judge who has received a contribution from a litigant or the litigant’s lawyer recuse him or her self.
If we could be sure that would happen, we wouldn’t need to pull out the checkbooks.
But then again, this isn't Louisiana or Ohio. Things are different here.
Hat tip to Harmful Error.
