Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/supreme-court-hears-arguments-in-judicial-ethics-case Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case testing when elected judges should recuse themselves from cases because of an appearance of bias. The National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle provides an update. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: At issue at the high court today, when must elected judges recuse themselves from cases because of the appearance of bias? And here to walk us through the arguments is Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal.And, Marcia, this West Virginia case came to the high court today. What was at issue? MARCIA COYLE, National Law Journal: Hugh Caperton opened a coal mining company in West Virginia. He won a $50 million jury award against another coal mining company owned by a fellow by the name of Don Blankenship, basically because of the way in which Blankenship put Caperton's company out of business.Between the time of that jury award and a widely anticipated appeal by Blankenship, there was an election for a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court. Blankenship contributed $3 million in direct and indirect contributions to an attorney named Brent Benjamin in order to defeat an incumbent judge on that court.Benjamin won. The appeal came up before him and other judges on the court. Caperton asked Benjamin to recuse himself, step aside because of the campaign contributions connection. Benjamin refused to step aside, ultimately ruled in a 3-2 decision in favor of Blankenship.Caperton brought the appeal to the Supreme Court saying due process, which protects our right to fair trials by an impartial decision-maker, among other things, demanded that Benjamin should have stepped aside because of the appearance of bias.