The search is officially on for a new associate justice on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Gov. Daniel J. McKee on April 3 sent the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission a letter alerting the all-volunteer panel of the recent vacancy on the high court caused by the March 27 retirement of Associate Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg, who stepped down after almost 29 years on the bench.
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By law, the commission now has 90 days to interview candidates and submit their top three to five picks to the governor, who will then have 21 days to make his nomination subject to advice and consent from both the Rhode Island House of Representatives and Senate.
As of early Monday evening the commission has not posted its own notice for applications, Zachary Mandell, the panel’s newly-appointed chair, confirmed Monday to Rhode Island Current.
Among those who could join the application pool is House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, though his Statehouse office declined to say whether he will send his CV to the commission.
“Speaker Shekarchi’s position hasn’t changed regarding his interest in the Supreme Court: He always considers his options,” House spokesperson Larry Berman said in an emailed statement Monday.
Shekarchi, who won the speaker’s gavel in 2021, announced in February that he decided against running for governor, ending months of speculation about his ambitions for higher office. He ended 2025 with more than $4.3 million in his campaign account, according to his fourth quarter filing with the state’s Board of Elections.
But the possibility that Shekarchi could take a seat on Rhode Island’s highest court has generated some concern. 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 directly from the General Assembly to its bench.
“It would be a fundamental rejection of the foundational principle of the changes to the selection process,” Yelnosky said in an interview with Rhode Island Current.
The state’s judicial selection process was created in 1994 through legislation and a constitutional amendment. Up until that point, justices on the state’s highest bench were selected by General Assembly leaders meeting in a “Grand Committee” which often picked other lawmakers.
The change came after two consecutive chief justices stepped down amid impeachment proceedings. Former House Speaker Joseph Bevilacqua resigned in 1986 following allegations he was associated with people tied to organized crime.
That same year, delegates of the Constitutional Convention recommended a ballot question to create an independent commission tasked with nominating judges. Voters rejected that amendment during the 1986 election.
Then in 1993, Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Fay and court administrator Matthew J. Smith – a former House Speaker – resigned from Rhode Island’s judiciary after the Providence Journal exposed a vast patronage system overseen by the two.
“That really put the wind in the sails of change,” said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “It was an enormous scandal at the time.”
But reform hasn’t fully done away with the legislature’s sway over court appointments.
A revolving door rule that requires state lawmakers to be out of government for one year before taking a state job was challenged in 2020 when then-Sen. Erin Lynch Prata was appointed by Gov. Gina Raimondo to join Rhode Island’s Supreme Court.
Staff from state’s Ethics Commission had recommended that Lynch Prata could not join, but the Warwick Democrat argued that Supreme Court seats fall under an exception for constitutional officers.
Most of the commission’s appointed members agreed with her, voting 5-2 to let Lynch Prata successfully seek the job. But the commission never adopted a formal opinion to resolve future bids from lawmakers.
“There actually is no legal precedent from the Ethics Commission about whether a sitting legislator can seek or accept appointment to the Supreme Court,” Marion said. “It’s a little no-man’s land.”
Which means Shekarchi will likely need an ethics opinion of his own.
Recent appointments, notably former Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey’s confirmation to the District Court in a 27–8 vote on Feb. 5, have also drawn concern from progressive groups and some legislators.
Sen. Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat who voted against McCaffrey’s nomination, said the merit-selection process has “essentially become a mirage.”
“It’s pretty blatantly a political and patronage process,” she said. “The system is not set up to be fair. It is not set up to be neutral. It is not set up to be independent. And it is not set up as a merit-based process.”
Euer recently introduced legislation that tasks the Judicial Nominating Commission with conducting a “blind review” of applications before any interview or public hearing. Identifying information, including the applicant’s name, would be removed, according to the bill.
“Anyone who has been in the HR business knows this is possible to do,” Euer said.
Euer’s bill has not yet been scheduled for an initial hearing before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, which she chaired during the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions before losing the position in last year’s Senate leadership fight.
Companion legislation sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Kislak, a Providence Democrat, is scheduled to receive its initial hearing before the House Committee on Judiciary on Thursday. Kislak did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Christopher Shea is a staff writer for the Rhode Island Current.
