Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.

Caperton v. Massey
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 3, 2009 Decided June 8, 2009
Full case name	Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co.
Docket no.	08-22
Citations	556 U.S. 868 (more) 129 S. Ct. 2252; 173 L. Ed. 2d 1208; 2009 U.S. LEXIS 4157; 77 USLW 4456; 09 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7053; 2009 Daily Journal D.A.R. 8207; 21 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 908
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	223 W. Va. 624, 679 S.E.2d 223 (2008); cert. granted, Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 555 U.S. 1028 (2008).
Holding
Justice Brent Benjamin’s failure to recuse himself created an unconstitutional “probability of bias.”
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy, joined by Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent	Roberts, joined by Scalia, Thomas, Alito
Dissent	Scalia

Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S. 868 (2009), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires judges to recuse themselves not only when actual bias has been demonstrated or when the judge has an economic interest in the outcome of the case but also when "extreme facts" create a "probability of bias."^[1]