[00:00.33]This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. [00:04.96]Elected judges in the United States got a warning this week about money, politics and the law. [00:13.02]The Supreme Court ruled that a huge campaign donation can be reason enough not to judge a case involving [00:23.25]the donor. [00:24.17]Thirty-nine of the fifty states elect at least some of their judges. Terms can last from two to twelve years. [00:34.51]Experts say Japan and Switzerland are the only other countries that hold some kind of judicial elections. [00:43.91]In many states, elections for judges are increasingly competitive. The Justice at Stake Campaign says candidates [00:55.54] raised one hundred sixty-eight million dollars between two thousand and two thousand seven. The group says [01:04.63]that was double the amount raised in the nineteen nineties. [01:09.58]Critics say the situation threatens the fairness of state courts. It may create the appearance that judges are selling [01:20.35]their influence. [01:22.63]The Supreme Court ruled on a vote by a judge elected to West Virginia's high court five years ago. Justice Brent [01:33.92]Benjamin -- now chief justice -- voted to overturn a fifty million dollar judgment against the Massey Coal Company. [01:44.11]Massey's chairman had spent three million dollars to help elect him to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. [01:54.17]That was after the company lost a jury trial over a business dispute. [02:02.55]Justice Benjamin refused to remove himself from Massey's appeal and cast the deciding vote. The reason he gave [02:13.24] for not recusing himself was that there was no financial gain for him in making his decision. The donations, however, [02:24.27] represented about sixty percent of all his campaign money. [02:29.04]The United States Supreme Court found that the "extreme facts" of the case raised the probability of bias to an [02:41.17]unconstitutional level. Not every campaign gift requires a judge's recusal, the court said, "but this is an exceptional [02:52.19]case." [02:53.52]Yet the nine justices were narrowly divided in their opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts was one of four dissenters. [03:02.81]He said the court provided no guidance about when recusal will be constitutionally required. This, he said, will lead [03:14.45]to an increase in claims that judges are biased, "however groundless those charges may be." [03:21.97]The American Bar Association's Committee on Judicial Independence is working on guidelines for when judges [03:32.12]should recuse themselves. Committee chairman William Weisenberg says the lawyers group is for greater use of [03:40.39]merit-based selections. This is where a committee nominates candidates to the state governor for appointment. [03:50.28]And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.