Carroll Andrew Morse
While steadfastly refusing to cite any limits on how late into a pregnancy non-emergency abortions should be allowed, Kamala Harris has claimed that her campaign promise “to put back the protections that are in Roe v. Wade into law” would not legalize abortion until the moment of birth. But if Roe were to be “codified”…
Do we have a test case, for bringing this session’s Supreme Court’s ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County to Rhode Island? In Tyler v. Hennepin County, in a refreshingly short 9-0 opinion, the Court ruled that when local governments seize property over unpaid taxes, they are only entitled to keep what was owed. So after…
Let’s go through all of the basics. Most basic of all: A debt remains real, even when you don’t have the money to pay it. And what makes a debt real? Basically, a debt is real when the parties who agreed to it and other parties around them agree that something bad will happen, if…
Three same-sex marriage bills have been posted for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on this Tuesday, S0038 and H5015A which would authorize same sex marriage by statute, and S0708 which calls for a referendum on the issue. One or more of them could reach the Senate floor by Thursday (see item #7 from Ian Donnis).…
A press release from the Middlesex County (MA) District Attorney, via Reuters, has information on everything that’s been confirmed as of 5AM, related to last night’s murder of an MIT police officer and shootout in Watertown, very likely related to the Boston Marathon bombing… Police are investigating a fatal shooting of MIT campus police officer…
Senators Lou Raptakis and Nick Kettle submitted a pair of bills to the General Assembly today concerning the Central Coventry Fire District. The first bill describes new outlines for the Coventry, Western Coventry, and Hopkins Hill Road fire districts, which I assume would cover all of the town of Coventry between them; the last two…
Commenter “Mike” noted that there is more to the Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s proposed firearms permitting bill (h/t Providence Journal) than which office handles an application. Here is a basic outline of the set of overlapping provisions that form the basics of Rhode Island’s firearms law, and how the Attorney General’s bill might…
The Rhode Island House of Representatives Finance Committee has a bigger-than-usual open-government dilemma on its hands. Yesterday, the Finance Committee heard three separate bills for dealing with bond payments to 38 Studios (see bills 1A, 1B, and 1C here). There is also a fourth option available — take no further legislative action and pay off…
Here is a link the General Assembly press release on the 9 bills to be introduced, labeled as the “gun safety package”. The two items likely to be most controversial are…Gun Control and Safe Firearms Act: This bill bans the manufacture, sale, purchase or possession of semi-automatic assault weapons after July 1, 2013. It also…
1G. H5746: Limits the Economic Development Corporation’s total liability for loans, bonds, guarantees and other financing instruments to $1B, unless a larger amount is authorized by a General Assembly joint resolution. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 9) 1F. H5268: Caps EDC loan guarantees to any one entity at $10M. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 9) 1E. H5745:…