Excellent Op Ed, Andrew.

Two excerpts in particular:

"In the American system of governance, constitutional amendments are the most authoritative sources that exist, outranking statutes passed by legislators and even the opinions of judges. Constitutional amendments resolve ambiguities in the law just as decisively — actually more decisively — than judicial opinions do."

and

"Given that the U.S. Supreme Court has never found a constitutional prohibition against the application of narrowly tailored ethics laws to legislators to exist in the past, the Rhode Island courts cannot go back and find one now. No judge has the authority to alter the straightforward meaning of a constitutional amendment by referring to a precedent that never was."

... by the way, please oh please let a higher court overturn this decision before it hits the US Supremes. Like our reputation for cranking out corrupt politicians isn't bad enough, imagine us making headlines around the country because a state judge tried to gut our ethics law.