Judiciary

Tackiest Post To Date

By Carroll Andrew Morse | October 7, 2009 |

I thought former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Frank Williams’ role model was Abraham Lincoln, not Dwight Eisenhower.

Applying the Law, Even When Wrong

By Justin Katz | September 6, 2009 |

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…

Senator Whitehouse’s First Round of Questions to Judge Sotomayor

By Carroll Andrew Morse | July 15, 2009 |

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…

Re: A Question that Senator Whitehouse Might Ask of Judge Sotomayor

By Carroll Andrew Morse | July 14, 2009 |

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…

A Question that Senator Whitehouse Might Ask of Judge Sotomayor

By Carroll Andrew Morse | July 13, 2009 |

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…

Re: RI Supreme Court Undercuts Ethics Commission

By Justin Katz | June 30, 2009 |

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…

Breaking: RI Supreme Court Undercuts Ethics Commission

By Marc Comtois | June 29, 2009 |

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…

The Daughter Is In

By Justin Katz | June 28, 2009 |

Kristin Rodgers, now confirmed to the Superior Court, has an admirable background suggestive of the possibility that, in a world of judicial activism, Anchor Rising readers should prefer her to most others. But still: In remarks to those gathered in the Senate chamber, Sen. John F. McBurney III, D-Pawtucket, whose father was a state senator,…

RI Supreme Court Places More Emphasis on Family than the Family Court

By Monique Chartier | June 20, 2009 |

In one case, anyway. The Rhode Island Supreme Court on Friday overturned rulings by the Family Court that had allowed a divorced woman and her two children to remain in Rhode Island for almost seven years despite an order from a North Carolina judge that they return to that state, where the children’s father lived.…

Shifting Laws, Corrupt Continuity

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2009 |

By now you should have read yesterday’s front-page advertisement for the Gaspee Tea Party rally in the Providence Journal. I’m referring to the article on big-money state pensions that Monique mentioned last night. Most of the article is a series of revelations that make one wish for something symbolic (but not harmful) to tip over…