State supreme court
Many states elect their state Supreme Court justices and/or use elections to retain judges. Since 2000, the amount of money raised by judicial candidates has risen enormously. Special interest groups have contributed to many of these campaigns raising questions of impartiality. The US Supreme Court, in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. (2009) in a 5-4 decision, ruled that an elected state supreme court judge sitting on a case involving a campaign contributor was a violation of due process.