Stephen Broadwater Jr.
When I started reading Greg Thomas’ latest op-ed for the West Virginia Record I believed that we may have been on the same page for once. He called on Gov. Patrick Morrisey to appoint a conservative justice to the West Virginia Supreme Court.
I agree — but that’s where any agreement with Greg ends. We clearly have very different ideas about what “conservative” is.
I believe that a conservative justice is one who supports fairness, believes in our Constitution and the fundamental rights enshrined in the bill of rights, especially those in the First, Second and Seventh Amendments. A conservative justice recognizes that our courtrooms are the one place where every citizen has an equal playing field with the wealthy elite, powerful corporations, and even the government itself. A truly conservative justice preserves the rule of law and our access to a fair and balanced civil justice system as the framers intended.
That’s not what Greg Thomas wants. He’s the executive director of “Citizens” Against Lawsuit Abus and leobbyist for the American Tort Reform Association. Both are front groups created by a PR firm. They are funded by billion-dollar, woke, globalist corporations and are behind unrelenting, unwarranted attacks on our civil justice system.
They want a justice who will blindly follow their demands. Greg and his corporate puppet masters want a justice who is beholden to them so that they can increase their profits at the expense of the health and safety of West Virginians. To be clear – there’s nothing conservative about giving up your constitutional rights in the name of executive profit.
If there is any doubt this is what those corporations want, just look at former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin and his race against Justice Warren McGraw in 2004.
Greg Thomas orchestrated the “And for the Sake of the Kids” campaign that attacked Justice McGraw and was funded by Don Blankenship. Justice Benjamin, who was a Republican, won that race and served from 2005 through 2016. During his time on the bench, Justice Benjamin proved to be a fair justice who earned the respect of attorneys statewide.
While you may not agree with every decision he made, you knew that he had considered the evidence and the law carefully and made what he believed was the best decision based on the Constitution.
But that’s not what CALA, ATRA and their corporate funders wanted. They want an activist court that will go out of its way to deny you your rights, regardless of the Constitution. They want your court to help them increase their profits at the expense of your rights.
When Justice Benjamin ran for re-election in 2016, he was targeted and defeated by these same corporate special interests who hailed him as their savior in 2004. It never was about the rule of law or protecting the rights of West Virginians.
In fact, any West Virginia judge who doesn’t do the bidding of these global corporations is attacked and targeted, especially when they enforce the letter of the law.
In 2022, Greg Thomas recruited and supported Andrea Kiessling, a candidate for West Virginia Senate’s 8th District who was ineligible to run. She did not meet the state residency requirements outlined in our Constitution.
When Judge Duke Bloom removed her from the ballot, Greg appeared on national news programs attacking Judge Bloom for following the Constitution, claiming that doing so meant the judge was an “activist” and too “liberal.” The decision in that case was simple — the candidate simply didn’t meet our state’s constitutional requirements. Yet, Greg claimed far and wide that enforcing the constitution was too “liberal” for him.
“Liberal” is a term Greg uses a lot now. When West Virginia legislators vote to protect our rights, he attacks them as liberals, too. Ironically, those he is criticizing are some of the most conservative members of our Legislature. The votes they made this session were based on core Republican values of limited government, personal responsibility, stopping government overreach and freedom to contract.
CALA and ATRA oppose those ideals at every turn. Instead, they want our legislature to pass bad laws that would allow corporations to harm West Virginians physically and financially without consequence.
This is corporate welfare in its purest form, designed solely to increase corporate profit at the expense of our fundamental rights.
The legislators he’s attacking rejected his corporate welfare bills. Because these legislators put the interests of their constituents first, instead of bowing to the golden god of corporate profits, they have been attacked. Instead, they should be applauded for standing up for every one of us.
I agree that West Virginia needs a conservative justice who stands up for the people of this state and enforces every one of our rights enshrined in the Constitution. We must ensure that our courtrooms remain the one place where any citizen is equal to woke, globalist corporations with unlimited resources.
Protecting our rights and liberties and following the rule of law are fundamental to who we are as West Virginians.
Broadwater is the immediate past president of the West Virginia Association for Justice. He is a resident of Fayette County and works for the Charleston firm of Stewart Bell.
