This summer, candidates for the open SCORI seat will be put forward. The Womxn Project will be focused on candidates who are for bodily freedom and government transparency. Keep watch on our social media and emails for updates because we will need folx to show up and voice their opinions directly to Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC). (TWP has been a regular at the JNC meetings for over a year now!)
There is quite a bit of speculation over potential nominees, and much of that speculation is focused on Speaker Shekarchi, who is rumored to covet that lifetime appointment. Notwithstanding his judicial temperament, moving from the legislature to the bench has been a significant problem in RI, which was thought to have been adequately addressed when a one-year gap rule between the legislature and any other RI state job was created. However, the effectiveness of this ethics rule is certainly questionable.
Although legislators are barred from taking other state positions until they are out of office for a year, Judge Lynch-Prata went from the Chair of the Senate Judiciary to SCORI by successfully arguing to the Ethics Commission that the one-year provision did not apply to ‘constitutional’ positions like SCORI. With that, sadly, the ‘legislature to bench’ pipeline is clear.
Process Explained
What the RI statutes say on SCORI nominations is that the JNC has 90 days to put forward 3-5 names to the Governor, who then has 21 days to make a nomination. This means that the JNC has until June 26th to put forth the names, and then the Governor has until July 18th to submit a name to the Senate. The Senate then has 30 days to vote on the nomination, that being August 17th. But with the Senate in recess, this timing is subject to the rules of the recess, meaning the appointment may just wait until the Senate is back in session in January.
TWP will be in the process every step of the way, and we’ll need you to be ready to let your demands be known.
