Yesterday the West Virginia House of Delegates plugged what Associated Press news editor Brian Farkas called a “weasel hole.” In doing so the elected officials by a unanimous vote asserted their rights as the people’s representatives over a West Virginia Supreme Court corrupted by money and power. They delegates said that from now on the five justices cannot claim an exemption from the state’s Freedom of Information Laws.
If there is one man who deserves credit for this important legislation that now must pass the West Virginia Senate, it is Hugh Caperton, who, for the past thirteen years, has been fighting a legal struggle against Massey Energy, the largest coal company in the state, and its CEO, Don Blankenship.
Massey Energy drove Caperton’s small mine into bankruptcy in
