Supreme Court ruling raises questions for La.

A recent 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that elected judges should step aside from cases in which large campaign contributions create an appearance of bias provides a measure of vindication for activists who’ve called attention to the issue in Louisiana, but changes nothing here in the short term. “The Supreme Court made a very gutsy and proper decision in determining what every guy on the street knows: If you give a bunch of money to a judge, you might get a more favorable verdict,” says Randy Hayden, executive director of the Louisiana Organization for Judicial Excellence. The Supreme Court majority said a West Virginia justice should have recused himself from a case involving a coal executive who donated $3 million to the judge’s campaign. “The West Virginia case was ‘extraordinary’ and ‘extreme,’ so I expect very little impact if any on Louisiana,” says Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Catherine “Kitty” Kimball. Ginger Sawyer, vice president of Louisiana Business and Industry, also doesn’t see any immediate impact of the ruling here. But Sawyer says federal lawsuits in other states may end up in front of the Supreme Court, which could in turn produce more specific guidelines that would affect Louisiana courts. For a full version of this story, click here.—David Jacobs