Judiciary
Two points on an article about the RI judiciary’s declining to answer the governor’s request for further budget cuts: Overall, the courts brought in $25.2 million in fines in 2009, he said, $23 million of which went into the state’s general fund. This is entirely the wrong mindset for the judiciary. It isn’t meant to…
Michael McConnell uses a book review on the topic of judicial philosophy to bring forth an image of the new process for being confirmed to the Supreme Court: Sotomayor’s repudiation of the president’s empathy criterion raised eyebrows and not a few questions about her sincerity. But in truth her answer was a powerful tribute to…
President Obama has nominated O. Rogeriee Thompson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. This is the same Judge Thompson, who, as Bob Kerr recently explained, “granted continuance after continuance as [Pocahontas] Cooley claimed various physical ailments or requested additional evidence…” in Cooley’s attempt to take over former-boyfriend Paul Kelly’s home. (Justin…
I thought former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Frank Williams’ role model was Abraham Lincoln, not Dwight Eisenhower.
Since we’re already on the topics of self reliance and freedom, it’s a good time to recall a Providence Journal editorial about a New Yorker who is suing everybody conceivable over his fall from Newport’s Cliff Walk. The fellow left the path, apparently required more protection than his own common sense to keep him from…
The Washington Post has the first round of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse‘s questioning of Judge Sonia Sotomayor available at their website. Ed Whelan of National Review Online notes that the exchange concerning Judge Sotomayor’s involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense fund contradicts what was reported in the New York Times earlier this year. This is…
I think a Rhode Island Tea Party member needs to drop a copy of the United States Constitution off at the office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, because the Senator seems stunningly unfamiliar with its content. This is part of what Senator Whitehouse had to say during his opening remarks at Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court…
The United States Supreme Court has held, in various rulings, that the Fourteenth Amendment extends the Federal Constitution to state governments, prohibiting states from violating the limitations on government action expressed in the Bill of Rights. In June of 2008, in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court ruled that the…
Writes the RI Supreme Court majority in the case of William Irons and the Ethics Commission: “We wish to stress in the strongest possible terms, however, that it in no way grants a legislator the right to transgress the Code of Ethics or any other law,” the majority wrote. Unprotected actions include political activities, efforts…
The Rhode Island Supreme Court has managed to take away one of the RI Ethics Commission’s big sticks: The Rhode Island Supreme Court has upheld a lower-court ruling on behalf of former Senate President William V. Irons, saying that state legislators cannot be prosecuted by the state Ethics Commission for their votes or official legislative…