SB440 Alabama 2014 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Cam Ward

Republican

Session

Regular Session 2014

Title

Judges, recusals, appearance of impartiality based on campaign contribution, rebuttable presumption if contribution represents 25 percent of total contribution for election cycle, Secs. 12-24-1, 12-24-2 repealed

Description

Under existing law, a justice or judge must recuse himself or herself if the appearance of impropriety exists because a party in the case gave the judge a substantial campaign contribution.

Under existing law, a judge is required to report the names of all campaign contributors before the term of office commences. Also under existing law, the attorneys for all parties are required to serve a certificate of disclosure of campaign contributions by the attorney or a party made to the judge presiding over the case.

This bill would repeal the existing law requiring campaign contribution disclosures by judges and provide new criteria for recusal. This bill would provide that a justice or judge must recuse himself or herself if a reasonable person would perceive that the ability of the judge to be impartial is impaired or there is a serious objective probability of bias by the justice or judge due to the contribution. This bill would create a rebuttable presumption that the justice or judge should recuse himself or herself if the contribution exceeds 25 percent of the total contributions the justice or judge received during the election cycle. This bill would also provide for appeal of an order denying a motion to recuse.

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Subjects

Judges