 |
||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | |
|||||||||
 |
||||||||||
Strength of field for chief justice evident in letters
The six nominees are hailed in more than 300 endorsements that illustrate the contrasts among them.
By JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF
Journal Staff Writer
During the work week, they all don black robes, sit on high-backed chairs and issue fine-sounding pronouncements resolving myriad disputes. But the similarities end there for the six candidates for Supreme Court chief justice.
Although judges all, the candidates present starkly different choices to the board that tomorrow will listen to public comment and then select three to five finalists for the top post in the state judiciary.
Perhaps nowhere are the differences among the candidates more evident than in the letters of recommendation that were submitted on their behalf to the Judicial Nominating Commission, the board that will select finalists.
What emerges from a reading of the more than 300 letters are the selling points of the six candidacies.
For Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders Jr., a major asset is his intellectual brilliance. For his colleague, Justice Victoria S. Lederberg, it is the opportunity to name the state's first female chief justice.
Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr., the lone candidate overseeing a court, is praised for his administrative experience.
Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. is known for his human touch, especially with members of minority groups. Fellow Judge Michael A. Silverstein, a former managing partner of a top law firm, is praised for his fairness and deliberateness.
A Manila folder can barely contain the dozens of letters filed on behalf of Superior Court Judge Frank J. Williams, who is compared favorably with a chief extracurricular interest, President Abraham Lincoln.
At 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, the Judicial Nominating Commission will meet in Conference Room A in the state Department of Administration building, across from the State House, to hear last-minute appeals for and against the various candidates. Governor Almond will narrow the field to one, who must be confirmed by both houses of the General Assembly.
The Rev. Anne Grant, pastor of Trinity Church, in Providence, has sent the commission's chairman a letter saying she will speak out against Jeremiah and what she said is his "highly questionable practices" regarding domestic violence.
In her two-page letter, Grant assailed Jeremiah for decisions that she said granted child custody to abusive husbands and thereby forced battered wives to return to violent homes to be with their children.
Grant's missive offers one of the few criticisms of any candidate in a batch of letters that generally serves up praise. Generally, the letters offer uniform praise of the candidates' honesty, intelligence and leadership.
Amid the expected plaudits, however, the recommendations provide views of the particular qualities of the candidates.
Sarah T. Dowling served on an ethics panel with Flanders. There, she wrote, "I got to know the thoroughness of his research, the incisiveness of his analysis and the clarity of his writing."
In a similar vein, George Graboys, a retired lawyer from Providence, sent in a handwritten letter about Flanders, extolling the "high level of his intellect and his superiority as a legal scholar."
Joseph H. Hagan, president of Roger Williams University, mailed in a copy of a letter that he had sent to Governor Almond. He said it would be "logical" to promote a sitting Supreme Court justice to the chief's spot.
"And it would be a great tribute to you as governor to have appointed the first woman chief justice in our state's history," Hagan wrote.
Lederberg served on the boards of the university and its law school. The law school's dean, Harvey Rishikof, wrote of another strong suit of Lederberg, a psychology professor before entering law; Rishikof talked about her standard-setting opinions on the admission of scientific evidence.
Backers of Jeremiah pointed to a new juvenile drug court, truancy court and other efforts as evidence that the Family Court chief judge possesses a strong commitment to rehabilitating delinquent children.
District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio urged the commission's nine members to consider the administrative experience of his colleague, who has led the Family Court since 1987.
And James W. Ryan, a former chief of the criminal division in the attorney general's office, waxed about Jeremiah's implementing a "model management-information system." In the next few years, the state's court system hopes to upgrade its computers.
Silverstein's supporters emphasized his judicial temperament.
Superior Court Judge Edward C. Clifton said Silverstein would continue current Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger's "manner" of leading the courts. Superior Court Judge Vincent A. Ragosta, who also recommended Williams, lauded Silverstein for his years of handling a difficult load of emergency cases.
Supporters of Darigan, who chairs a court committee on women and members of minority groups, described him as the candidate best able to make the courts more accommodating to minority groups, a concern of the current chief justice and community leaders.
Mary Reilly, who ministered the parish of St. Michael's and later Dorcas Place in Providence's Elmwood section, said Darigan helped a Hmong family settle in the area.
"Like all of us living there, he witnessed the changing demographics, supported the diversity, respected the richness of each culture and welcomed persons into his home," Reilly wrote.
An Elmwood neighbor of Darigan, Elizabeth Morancy, said he "quietly helped struggling people" in the community. She urged his selection "not just as a jurist but as a human being."
The Judicial Nominating Commission has received so many letters of recommendation that Chairman Robert Corrente has asked the writers not to speak at tomorrow's session, to move the hearings along.
According to lawyers, candidates for chief justice have been encouraging various supporters to write on their behalf.
Darigan received a letter of support from The Most Rev. Louis E. Gelineau, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Providence, who wrote about Darigan's childhood election as national president of the Catholic Youth Organization.
Williams, however, received far and away the most letters, including ones from U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and John Hope Franklin, an emeritus professor of history at Duke University.
He also got support from an assistant editor of Civil War News, the director of the Newport Music Festival and Maria Miro Johnson, an ex-reporter at The Journal who wrote about his handling of the 1998 Block Island rape trial.
Williams earned a Bronze Star in the Vietnam War, and backers described his efforts to reduce backlogs of cases in Washington and Kent County courts and mediate labor disputes as examples of a military man's can-do approach.
They also noted that Williams is a Lincoln scholar.
"Like his hero, Abraham Lincoln, Judge Frank J. Williams has shown himself to be a person of high principle, yet with the uncanny ability to bring about compromise," wrote Public Defender John J. Hardiman.
| Back to: RI News |  Printer-Friendly Version |
| Read/Post to our Bulletin Board on this topic | |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Copyright
© 2001 The Providence Journal Company
Help Center •
Privacy policy • Terms of service •
Make this your home page
