Michael J. Yelnosky, a professor and former dean at Roger Williams University School of Law, has filed an ethics complaint asserting that former House Speaker Joe Shekarchi’s application to move to the state Supreme Court violates the state’s revolving door law.
Yelnosky filed the complaint with the state Ethics Commission while Shekarchi was still giving his farewell speech to the House. The commission is likely to make a preliminary review of the complaint during its next meeting on June 2, Executive Director Jason Gramitt told Ocean State Media.
According to the complaint, Shekarchi’s application to fill a vacancy on the Rhode Island Supreme Court “violates the Code of Ethics, which prohibits a state elected official, while holding state office and for a period of one year after leaving office, from seeking or accepting employment with any other state agency.”
After stepping down as speaker on Thursday, Shekarchi told reporters he believes that the Supreme Court is exempt as a constitutional office from the revolving door law. He said if a complaint was filed, he would defend against it.
Shekarchi said he does not plan to seek an advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission because “the issue has been resolved. The law is very clear to me.”
In 2020, the Ethics Commission, on a 5-2 vote, did not stand in the way of Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Erin Lynch Prata moving directly to the Supreme Court. That was after the commission’s legal staff urged support for upholding the revolving door prohibition.
“That was the precedent to me,” Shekarchi said Thursday.
The commission did not issue an opinion on the broader matter in the 2020 case.
“They did not have to,” Shekarchi said. “The actual act (of the commission) is enough. And by the way, nobody fought that and nobody changed that.”
Shekarchi, who has practiced law for more than 30 years, said he has studied the issue and sought views from other lawyers.
The revolving door law was created in the early 1990s after an era of scandal, including the resignation of two consecutive Rhode Island Supreme Court chief justices.
The Judicial Nominating Commission was created in 1994 to try to lessen the influence of politics in the judicial-selection process, but many former lawmakers and legislative staffers have continued to win selection as judges and magistrates.
Shekachi said he has not discussed his application or the Supreme Court vacancy with Gov. Dan McKee, and speaking with reporters Thursday he rejected the suggestion that his political stature makes him a lock for nomination.
