Well, in case you were wondering, my campaign for South Kingstown School Committee was unsuccessful. Here are the results (5 elected):
Candidate                              Votes    Pct
Stephen Scott MUELLER (DEM) Â Â Â Â Â Â 7649Â Â Â 16.1%
Elizabeth S. MORRIS (Ind) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 7548Â Â Â 15.9%
Richard Edward [...]
I have decided to suspend my blogging here at Rhode Island Law Journal until November to focus my attention and efforts on my work and on my campaign for South Kingstown School Committee.
You will continue to be able to find and contact me through several sites online, including:
Yes, I am running for a seat on the South Kingstown School Committee, which has four available seats. Visit my campaign blog!
I’m running as an Independent. Other candidates include four Democrats - incumbents Anthony Mega, Stephen Scott Mueller, and Richard E. Angelli, and newcomer Frederick Lee Frostic - [...]
Matt assures me that Rep. Walsh is indeed running, despite not being on the SOS’s list. Also, Liz Boardman of the South County Independent informs me that the SK Board of Canvassers has told her that both Walsh and Rice filed timely Declarations. So much for wondering what happened to Democrats [...]
Reports the ProJo:
The last debate to hit the House floor was one of the more intense.
For more than an hour, Republicans lobbied against a plan to build a courthouse in Smithfield several years from now that would cost taxpayers $88 million. The lawyer-dominated legislature, they said, shouldn’t be so [...]
Representative Al Gemma just suggested we throw Muslims to the lions, I think in jest regarding how we (i.e. the State) could raise some money. Really, he did. There seemed to follow a low grumbling in the House chamber.
[...]Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein discusses the standard governing a Rule 12(b)(6) motion in light of a recent United States Supreme Court case that drew a wrinkle into the now-well-known standard established more than 50 years ago in Conley v. Gibson.
[...]Dean David Logan offers a photo recap.
[...]Liz Boardman in this week’s South County Independent reports (in paper, should be online tomorrow) that Democratic State Representative Donna Walsh (Dist. 36, South Kingstown, Charlestown, Westerly, New Shoreham, me) will face at least two opponents, former state representative and current independent Matthew McHugh and South Kingstown Republican Party Chairman [...]
The Rhode Island Supreme Court in State v. McManus:
When a District Court judgment is appealed under § 12-22-1, the state, as well as the accused, is entitled to a trial de novo.
This was a case requiring a simple correction of a clear error at the trial level, a [...]
The ProJo’s Edward Fitzpatrick writes today about the Magistrate Selection Committee set up by Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams to screen candidates for two vacancies on the Traffic Tribunal:
No public testimony was allowed. And that was called an improvement.
The public could send in written comments. But [...]
Says the Obama campaign’s Fight the Smears web site. But is it a smear? Maybe it was intended as a smear, but should the Obama campaign be calling it that? Reminds me of Mike Piazza holding a press conference to defend himself against the accusation that he was gay. [...]
Reports the ProJo.  Without commenting on the merits of the GOP’s lawsuit, I would note this:
The court complaint pits 10 of the 12 current House Republicans against Murphy in his dual capacities as House Speaker and chairman of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services, and Senate President Joseph Montalbano, in [...]
I’m at the RI Bar Association Annual Meeting, so I haven’t had the time to read it, but this morning the RI Supreme Court released a unanimous opinion, written by Justice Flaherty, vacating the conviction of Charles Pona for conspiring to murder Jennifer Rivera. The Court ordered a new trial.
[...]I continue to be impressed with the variety of ways Massachusetts makes its laws and legal institutions open and accessible to the public. This time it is with how the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries (MTCLL) compile and publish web pages like this new one about Massachusetts Law About [...]
Two happenings this week brought me back to the one month period spanning late December 1995 and early January 1996, which was perhaps the most difficult time of my life.
I was eighteen, my wife (then girlfriend) was twenty-one and our daughter was one-month old when, at a check-up, her pediatrician [...]
The ProJo reports that R. David Cruise, chief of staff to Senate President Joseph Montalbano, faced some tough questions:
The committee chairman, Traffic Tribunal Judge Edward C. Parker, asked how Cruise’s political experience contributes to his qualifications. Cruise said many people come to court for the first time at the [...]
Now here’s a good bill:
Rep. Edwin R. Pacheco is sponsoring bipartisan legislation to require the General Assembly to make its members’ voting records easier to track.
The bill (2008-H 7631) would require that the General Assembly’s Web site include each member’s voting record – including every vote cast by [...]
Roger Williams University is looking for an Assistant General Counsel.
[...]Cardozo Law Professor and FindLaw columnist Anthony Sebok is “certain that the defendants will win some kind of reversal of the trial verdict.”
What the defendants want, however, is not just a new trial, or a denial of contingency fees to the plaintiffs? firm that was retained by the state [...]
In Madros v. Prescod, released today, the Rhode Island Supreme Court was asked to recognize the loss-of-chance doctrine as an appropriate theory of recovery in medical malpractice cases, but Chief Justice Williams, writing for a unanimous Court, declined to do so because the jury had found that the defendant [...]
Here is today’s ProJo story on the workshop. Also, here is Professor Cheit’s March 10th ProJo op-ed on this issue.
(6.3.08 11:03pm): Rhode Island Ethics Commission member Ross E. Cheit provided RILJ with some comments on today’s workshop on the Code of Ethics’ “class exception”:
The meeting was [...]
Don’t our state legislators have staff attorneys to review prospective legislation for little things like constitutionality?
[...]Last week the ProJo reported:
The state Board of Elections voted unanimously yesterday to preserve the voting rights of two men found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity some 20 years ago.
The panel overturned a nine-month-old decision by Cranston elections officials, who found that William Sarmento and John A. [...]
Rules Rhode Island Superior Court Justice O. Rogeriee Thompson:
Appellee Myers . . . fails to convince this Court that there exists any case law or legal theory which supports her claim that mentally incapacitated persons are legally barred from taking inheritance. In fact, Appellee Myers offers no case law or statutory [...]
Via the WSJ Law Blog:
In the course of writing the book, you and your co-author, Bryan Garner, consulted more than a dozen judges. Did you learn anything about the habits of your colleagues?
[Justice Scalia:] We learned an awful lot from them. Stuff that I didn?t know. For example, the [...]
I enjoy a creative argument:
There was in early Christendom a belief that the calculation and assessment of interest was itself immoral, a belief which still prevails in Islam. That bias no doubt permeated the original reaction of law to the very concept of interest. It is time to abandon that [...]
So where else can I get a decent gyro for lunch when I’m in Providence?
[...]Jim Donaldson has a nice profile today of 14-year-old Juliet Vongphoumy, the first girl to win the Rhode Island Interscholastic League individual golf title. Then you turn to reporter John Gillooly’s story and he provides some additional information that, while it does nothing to take away from Vongphoumy’s accomplishment, leads [...]
The ProJo reports:
Dog owners who leave their pets tethered outdoors for more than an hour “without access to outdoor housing” would face fines under legislation that cleared the Senate yesterday.
The bill would also impose fines on owners who leave their dogs outside without “proper food, water or proper [...]
If you’re a parent, like me, and you don’t know about Kidoinfo (the parents’ guide: providence + beyond) . . . well, you should, so check it out. Here are our four on a recent walk along the beach:
If you are interested in running for any political office this year, but you have not yet registered to vote, you’re out of luck and will not be able to run, at least according to the Secretary of State’s Election Calendar 2008 and How to Run for Office [...]
Brought to RWU Law students by Professor David Zlotnick (and to us by Dean David Logan):
David [Zlotnick] was recently one of ten scholars from around the country to be awarded a grant from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, which David will use to develop and teach a course that integrates [...]
The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled last week that two Rhode Island statutes by which individuals may have certain police and court records destroyed or sealed permissibly distinguish between felons and non-felons. Rhode Island General Laws sections 12-1-12 and 12-1-12.1 “allow for the destruction of certain police records and [...]
Several state representatives have sponsored legislation, H 7071, that would raise the legal gambling age to 21. This is not the first time this issue has been raised. The bill is scheduled for consideration by the House Finance Committee next Wednesday, May 28th.
[...]Assistant State Court Administrator Craig Berke responded today to my and your questions about the webcast of the lead paint argument. He said that overall Court administrators felt the webcast “went reasonably well for a first effort.” They were satisfied with the quality of the sound and the video provided through [...]
