''Tumey v. Ohio'', 273 U.S. 510 (1927), is a
US Supreme Court case, concerning the due process of
judicial disqualification
Judicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, is the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer. Applica ...
. The court struck down an Ohio law that financially rewarded public officials for successfully prosecuting cases related to
Prohibition. The court's decision in this case continues to provide precedent today in many cases involving judicial
impartiality
Impartiality (also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another ...
.
Background
The mayor of the village of
North College Hill, Ohio
North College Hill is a city in Hamilton County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio approximately ten miles north of downtown Cincinnati. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,397. The city takes its name from its proxim ...
received $12 for every defendant convicted before him. Ed Tumey was convicted before the mayor of unlawfully possessing intoxicating liquor.
Opinion of the Court
The court held that Tumey's conviction violated the Fourteenth Amendment, reasoning that it "deprives a defendant in a criminal case of due process of law to subject his liberty or property to the judgment of a court, the judge of which has a direct, personal, substantial pecuniary interest in reaching a conclusion against him in his case."
[''Tumey'', 273 U.S. at 523.]
See also
*
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 273
*''
Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.
''Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co.'', 556 U.S. 868 (2009), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires judges to recuse themselves not only when actual bias has been ...
''
References
*Kastenberg, Joshua E., ''Chief Justice William Howard Taft's Conception of Judicial Integrity: The Legal History of Tumey v. Ohio'' (2017). Cleveland State Law Review. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2959072
External links
*
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Taft Court
1927 in United States case law
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