Buried within legislation intended to help the Gulf region recover from the BP oil spill is a provision requiring lawsuits against oil companies to be heard in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

Critics say the move would be a boon for industry, because so many fifth circuit judges have financial ties to oil businesses.

 

According to Think Progress:

 

“Ten of the Fifth Circuit’s sixteen active judges have oil investments, including Chief Judge Edith Jones, who owns as much as $330,000 in oil interests. Two Fifth Circuit judges, Jerry Smith and Eugene Davis, even ruled in favor of the oil industry in a major drilling moratorium case despite the fact that they both attended expense-paid “junkets for judges” sponsored by an oil-industry funded organization. A third Fifth Circuit judge, Edith Clement, actually serves on the board of this organization, despite an opinion from the federal judiciary’s ethics committee saying that Clement violates her ethical obligations by remaining on this board.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

GOP Bill Shifts Oil Drilling Cases to Court Dominated by Judges with Oil Investments (by Ian Millhiser, Think Progress)

Judicial Gusher: the Fifth Circuit’s Ties to Oil (Alliance for Justice) (pdf)

Judges in Drilling Moratorium Case Tied to Oil Industry (by Noel Brinkerhoff andDavid Wallechinsky, AllGov)