The popularly elected judiciary.

U.S. Supreme Court grants cert. in Harman Mining-Massey Energy state judge campaign contribution case; but it’s not just a West Virginia thing. In the 1980s and 1990s, I frequently defended “Big Coal” (often on ERISA withdrawal liability matters), and for some fine West Virginia-based clients, which I admired and fought hard for. Unions were usually the plaintiffs. My firm was lucky to stay out of state courts in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and always could work in federal courts, usually in D.C. where, frankly, the judges are better, and classier, than any court pocket I’ve practiced in. D.C. federal judges “get it”, and the law is important to them. Even the D.C. Superior Court judges are appointed on the basis of merit–by the U.S. President–and that more local, “state-like” system works, too.