Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee has started the process for filling a vacancy on the state Supreme Court, elevating the question of whether House Speaker Joe Shekarchi will seek to make the jump from the General Assembly to the five-member court.
After Ocean State Media reached out on Friday, McKee’s office confirmed Monday that the governor sent the state Judicial Nominating Commission letters announcing openings on the Supreme Court and Superior Court, kickstarting the process to fill the vacancies.
According to state law, the commission has 90 days to submit three to five names to the governor for a Supreme Court vacancy, and the governor has 21 days to make his nomination.
Shekarchi has said he is open to considering seeking the spot created by the resignation earlier this year of Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg. The Speaker is thought to be interested, though he has not announced a definitive decision. McKenna’s last day on the job was March 27.
Since the legislative session typically ends in June, the deadline for the JNC to make its recommendations could come after the General Assembly has passed the state budget and gone on summer recess.
The picks could also come after the June 24 filing deadline for candidates, which could impact the speaker’s re-election campaign for his state representative seat in Warwick.
Republican Dana James Traversie, who ran against Shekarchi in 2022, is running again this year with the support of the League of Rhode Island Businesses, a conservative-leaning group. Shekarchi has said he plans to seek re-election. Potential Democratic challengers would have to balance jumping into a race against the powerful speaker with the possibility of Shekarchi exiting the campaign to take a post on the state Supreme Court.
“Speaker Shekarchi’s position hasn’t changed regarding his interest in the Supreme Court: He always considers his options,” Shekarchi spokesman Larry Berman said.
After a series of scandals, including the resignation of two state Supreme Court justices, the JNC was created in 1994 with the goal of lessening the influence of politics in the selection of judges in Rhode Island.
But former lawmakers and legislative staffers continue to gain posts as judges and magistrates.
A revolving door law that requires state lawmakers to be out of government for one year before taking a state job was challenged in 2020, when Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Erin Lynch Prata of Warwick argued that the rule did not apply to Supreme Court positions.
The state Ethics Commission agreed with Lynch Prata, on a 5-2 vote, after the commission’s own legal staff argued that she was covered by the revolving door law. Lynch Prata was elevated by former Gov. Gina Raimondo to the Supreme Court.
Shekarchi is one of the state’s most powerful and high-profile politicians.
Michael Yelnosky, a professor and former dean at Roger Williams University School of Law, argued in a recent Boston Globe op-ed that the Supreme Court’s reputation would be damaged if a House Speaker went straight from the legislature to the court.
After winning election as a state representative from his native Warwick in 2012, Shekarchi became speaker in 2021. That was after his predecessor, Nick Mattiello, lost a 2020 re-election run for his state rep seat in Cranston.
