Shekarchi goes to court to block ethics investigation against his RI Supreme Court bid

Former House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi is asking a Providence County Superior Court judge to toss an ethics complaint challenging his application to join the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

The legal action comes after the state’s Ethics Commission on Tuesday twice rejected Shekarchi’s attempts to stop its investigation into whether his bid for Rhode Island’s highest court violates the state’s “revolving door” rule barring sitting lawmakers from taking on another state job.

Shekarchi vows court challenge after Ethics Commission keeps Supreme Court probe alive

Echoing the arguments his attorney made before the Ethics Commission, Shekarchi’s complaint against the panel argues that the state’s revolving door law does not apply to constitutional offices, contending a Rhode Island Supreme Court justice’s seat is one such office.

“Only a court can decide the applicability of the constitution to this situation,” the motion to stay the Ethics Commission’s investigation states.

By allowing the investigation to continue, the complaint asserts Shekarchi would “suffer immediate harm” as the investigation could interfere with his application before the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

The former House speaker is among five candidates who will be publicly interviewed by the nine-member panel on July 28. Three to five candidates will earn a spot on a short list sent to the governor to fill the vacancy created by the March retirement of Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg. 

Jason Gramitt, executive director of the Ethics Commission, said in an email to Rhode Island Current Thursday he was aware of the filings made in Superior Court but has not received any further information.

Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, stepped down as House Speaker on May 7, three days after applying to the high court’s bench. That same day, Roger Williams University School of Law Professor Michael Yelnosky filed his ethics complaint arguing that the leap from one branch of government directly to another would violate the revolving door rule written into state law in 1992.

Rhode Island’s Ethics Commission formally began its investigation June 2. It remains ongoing after the panel voted 5-1 to reject Shekarchi’s motions to dismiss and stay all proceedings.

Thomas Dickinson, Shekarchi’s attorney, has asked the Superior Court for an emergency hearing before the July 28 Judicial Nominating Commission meeting.

No judge has yet been assigned to the case as of Friday.