But Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University, said the justices should focus on the facts of this case.
"Ask yourself a simple question: If your opponent contributed a lopsided amount to the judge - say $3 million - and you contributed nothing, would you think there is a risk of bias?" he said. "With these numbers, the answer has to be yes."
Twelve years ago, Caperton owned a mine that sold a high-quality coal for the steel industry. Massey wanted the same business. Massey bought the processing firm that handled Caperton's coal and then bought the land around his mine.
For a time, Blankenship expressed interest in buying Caperton's company. After taking a close look inside the company, Blankenship backed away from a deal.
"It was a ruse," Caperton says.
Benjamin was a little-known Republican lawyer in Charleston, the state capital, when he sought to unseat Justice Warren McGraw in 2004. Blankenship gave just $1,000 directly to his campaign, but he spent nearly $3 million to pay for ads that attacked McGraw as "radical" and "soft on crime."
Benjamin won a narrow victory, becoming the first Republican since World War II to win election to West Virginia's high court.
When Massey's appeal came before the court, Benjamin refused to step aside, saying later that no one could show he had "any actual bias or prejudice."
The West Virginia justices operate under the same code as the U.S. Supreme Court justices. They step aside automatically if they own stock in a company whose case is before the court.
The code also says they must disqualify themselves if their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned." However, if questioned, they decide for themselves whether their impartiality might "reasonably" be in doubt.
Justice Benjamin also said he had no personal relationship with Don Blankenship.
Two other justices did step aside, and were replaced by two judges named by Benjamin. Chief Justice Elliot "Spike" Maynard was photographed vacationing on the Riviera with Blankenship. The other, Larry Starcher, known as a liberal Democrat, stepped aside after he was quoted as saying the controversy over Benjamin and Blankenship "makes me want to puke." But the majority said the lawsuit should have been decided in western Virginia, where the coal processing firm was located, rather than in West Virginia.
