The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a sensitive dispute about judicial ethics.
The justices are expected to issue at least one ruling Tuesday morning, then consider a West Virginia case about when elected judges should step aside from cases that involve their campaign supporters.
At the heart of the dispute is $3 million that coal company executive Don Blankenship spent to help elect a state Supreme Court justice. Later, that justice — Brent Benjamin — sided with the coal company in a multimillion-dollar dispute with another mining firm.
The losing party, Harman Mining Corp., argues that Benjamin's refusal to step aside in the 3-2 decision violated the company's constitutional right to due process.
