After weeks of debate about whether politicians should be able to jump directly to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Gov. Dan McKee on Wednesday nominated Judge Luis Matos to fill the court’s vacant seat.
Matos, a former prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island, has served as an associate justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court since he was nominated by then-Gov. Lincoln Chafee in 2012.
Raised in Providence’s Fox Point section, Matos was born in Portugal. He earned degrees from Brown University and the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Now, Matos faces confirmation by the Rhode Island House of Representatives and state Senate.
McKee’s pick of Matos means that former House Speaker Joe Shekarchi did not get the job, after weeks of debate about whether his appointment would violate the state’s revolving door law. Now, that concern appears to be irrelevant.
Nomination process dogged by political concerns
The choice of someone other than Shekarchi raises the question of whether McKee’s tough re-election fight in a primary against fellow Democrat Helena Foulkes influenced his selection – and a faster-than-usual decision.
McKee and other governors have repeatedly exceeded the state law calling for them to select judges within 21 days after receiving a list of finalists from the state Judicial Nominating Commission.
In this case, McKee acted just over two weeks after receiving a list from the JNC – and before the Supreme Court itself could consider an appeal of an earlier Superior Court decision that had opened the door for Shekarchi.
Shekarchi stepped down from his powerful post in May to apply for the Supreme Court, and he was considered to have an inside track because of his political prominence.
The appearance of a top lawmaker potentially moving straight to the state’s top court set off a simmering debate – and a complaint to the Rhode Island Ethics Commission by Michael Yelnosky, a law school professor and former dean at Roger Williams University School of Law.
The revolving door law generally requires elected officials to spend a year outside of state employment before taking another government job. It was created after a series of court scandals in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Superior Court Judge Richard Licht ruled that the revolving door law does not apply to Shekarchi in this instance since the Supreme Court was created by the state Constitution.
When Attorney General Peter Neronha endorsed Foulkes in March, both said they thought Shekarchi would make a good Supreme Court justice.
However, public debate about the issue continued, and some supporters of McKee urged him to pick someone other than Shekarchi for the Supreme Court.
The Ethics Commission filed notice Tuesday that it planned to appeal Licht’s decision, but that appeal now appears moot.
Shekarchi and Matos were two of the five finalists for the spot on the Supreme Court. The others were: Assistant Attorney General Christopher Bush, Family Court Judge Laureen D'Ambra, and lawyer John Roberts.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
