American Civil Liberties Union

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

The 2010 regular session of the West Virginia State Legislature offered some long overdue good news with respect to the state's racial profiling problem. While those concerned with profiling have known it to be a reality for a long time, the hard evidence was not available until early 2009 when the results of the WV Traffic Stop Study were released. Bottom line, those drivers who are perceived to be racial and ethnic minorities (i.e. African-American or Latino) are 1.5 times more likely to be stopped. Once stopped, they are 2.5 times more likely to have their vehicles searched, even though (the same study showed) minority drivers are actually less likely to have anything illegal in their possession than their Caucasian counterparts.

Maybe it's different where you're from, but in West Virginia, the just-past general election cycle and the one before it were noted for concerted efforts by out-of-state corporate behemoths to purchase seats on the State Supreme Court and in the Attorney General's office. Call me bitter, but when your state's judicial system becomes the basis for a John Grisham novel, the time has come to take action.

During the 2004 elections, Don Blankenship, the CEO of giant coal producer Massey Energy, decided to get involved in a State Supreme Court race. This coal baron had a big case coming before the court and knew he needed a more favorable vote count. So he started his own "issue advocacy organization" called "And For the Sake of the Kids." Due to his group's tax classification, he did not have to disclose the source of its funding: close to $3 million of his own money in a blatant effort to buy a seat on the West Virginia State Supreme Court. The effort paid off because, by the time it was revealed that Blankenship was the person funding the highly negative television ads, radio spots, and direct mailings, the damage was done and his candidate had won. When that big case came around, turned out the Massey energy had made a smart investment: The justice he helped elect provided the crucial vote in a 3-2 decision. (Coincidently, that justice's refusal to recuse himself from that case has led to the United States Supreme Court getting involved. The high court has agreed to hear the failure to recuse case next spring.)

Late on the evening of August 28, 2008, an explosion rocked the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, W.Va. The incident, which ultimately claimed the lives of two workers and created confusion and panic throughout a community of tens of thousands, has drawn international attention because the chemical plant in question houses methyl isocyanate (MIC). That is the same chemical responsible for the 1984 disaster in Bhopal, India, that claimed upwards of 4,000 lives and has contributed to countless health problems in the region since.

There have been several accounts detailing Bayer CropScience's culpability leading to what happened that night and their refusal to cooperate with first responders trying to get a handle on the situation. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has published the first part of their report detailing the lapses at the plant. However, one particular maneuver by Bayer deserves special recognition by anyone who cares about civil liberties and the obstacles to accessing information vital to the public interest that have been posed by post 9/11 anti-terrorism laws.

In an effort to find out more about what happened and, in turn, take strides to make sure it never happens again, People Concerned About MIC, a grassroots organization of citizens in the Kanawha Valley formed after the Bhopal disaster, petitioned the CSB to keep their promise of holding a public hearing on the explosion once more had been learned. Bayer CropScience was pressuring the CSB to cancel the meeting. Bayer even went as far as to refuse to release key documents on the matter to the Chemical Safety Board, citing that releasing documents related to the explosion would be a threat to homeland security under the Maritime Transportation and Security Act of 2002.