The Supreme Court's Toxic Conflict of Interest

The California Supreme Court won't hear the case of a man who believes his diseases were caused by chemicals in the workplace, because four of seven justices own stock in companies implicated in Braxton Berkley's lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.

Rarely is the influence of money on the judicial branch so obvious. Berkley worked for Lockheed Martin, but also named ExxonMobil Corp. and Unocal Corp. (now owned by Chevron) in the lawsuit. According to the AP, four of the justices owned stock in one or more of those companies.

Berkley claimed, according to the AP, that the chemical solvents he and hundreds of other workers used to build top-secret Cold War machines harmed their health. The case had been dismissed in a lower state court. Now his case is dead. There is no higher court to which he can appeal.

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