Changing the Rules of the Game: Deriving New Rules and Practices from Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.

Aman L. McLeod, Rutgers University

Abstract

In 2009, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., in which it ruled that judges must recuse themselves in cases involving those who have provided a disproportionate amount of financial support to their campaigns. This decision has forced states to reconsider their campaign finance laws and their judicial recusal rules. This article proposes practical and modest reforms that states could adopt that would effectively respond to the Caperton decision.