Judges

A Hawaii circuit court judge ruled this week that the governor must release the list of state judicial nominees to the public under the state's open records law.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie's attorneys have said in court proceedings that the governor does not want to make the names public because he believes it will deter other potential candidates. But Honolulu Star-Advertiser vice president and editor Frank Bridgewater said the previous two governors had released the names of potential judicial appointees, a tradition spanning over a dozen years.

After a source leaked information about a closed and controversial child-custody proceeding to The Miami Herald, a Florida judge required more than 30 state employees who were at the hearing to sign sworn statements about whether they disclosed the information, The Herald reported.

An Ohio trial judge said Friday that documents in a criminal proceeding would remain sealed at the victim's request, even though The Cincinnati Enquirer has asked the state supreme court to order the judge to unseal the records.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to force a trial judge to unseal documents in a criminal case, claiming she did not have sufficient cause for keeping it from the public.

A Tennessee judge is accusing a television news reporter of having a vendetta against him and broadcasting a series of defamatory stories after the judge refused to dismiss the reporter’s parking ticket.

The Associated Press has asked the West Virginia Supreme Court to reconsider its November ruling that e-mail messages exchanged between its former justice and a coal executive were not subject to public records laws, The Associated Press reported.

A coal executive has asked the West Virginia Supreme Court to reconsider its dismissal of a $50 million jury verdict against competitor Massey Energy after improper relationships between sitting justices and Massey executives came to light, The Charleston Gazette reported.

Hugh Caperton, the owner of Harman Mining Co., had sued Massey for unfair business practices and was awarded $50 million by a jury. But the state Supreme Court overturned the award on two separate occasions.

Personal e-mail messages on government accounts are not public records, even when they are between a judge and a party to a pending case, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled Nov. 12.

Washington’s Public Records Act does not apply to the state’s judiciary, the Washington Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The decision exempts all judges within the state from disclosing their professional correspondence or case files.

A judge in New York may proceed with part of his defamation lawsuit against the New York Daily News and columnist Errol Louis, but his claims against a lawyer who criticized him were dismissed, the New York Law Journal reported Friday.