News that should surprise no one:

Study shows elections not good for justice

The results showed that a justice who received half of his or her campaign contributions from business interest groups was more likely to decide cases in favor of a business than in favor of a government agency or private individual.

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Emory School of Law professor Joanna Shepherd, who authored the study, noted it focused on business interest groups because organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce give the largest slice of judicial campaign contributions.

Between 2000 and 2009, business groups gave $62.6 million to state Supreme Court candidates, 30 percent of the total. Lawyers and lobbyists followed with $59 million.

The study explained that money appears to affect decisions in at least two ways:

Judges who are ideologically aligned with contributors get money and have resources that help them win elections.

And judges who aren’t ideologically in favor of business interests may nonetheless vote for those interests, whether intentionally or - to use the term of one justice quoted by the study - “subliminally,” to ensure support from business groups in future elections.

The study found that in states with partisan elections, Republican justices decided cases in favor of businesses nearly two-thirds of the time, compared with their Democratic colleagues, who voted for businesses about half the time.