GIVEN THE POWER and significance of the Rhode Island Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) as well as the potential for corruption in the merit-selection process of judges, I have written to Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch to request clarification on the legality of the recent reappointment of C. June Tow to the JNC.

Rhode Island General Law creating this panel states that “No member shall be reappointed to the commission; [provided, however, that a person initially appointed to serve twelve months or less of a full four year term may, upon expiration of that term, be reappointed to serve one full term.].” Since Ms. Tow has already served as a member of the JNC (1998-2002), this appointment is a violation of law. This could render some votes of the JNC null and void.

At issue is the legal interpretation of the word “reappointment.” Governor Carcieri maintains that his appointment of Ms. Tow is appropriate as he interprets the word “reappointment” to mean commissioners cannot serve consecutive terms. In addition, the governor argues that the appointment of Ms. Tow is a new appointment for him and hence is not a “reappointment.”

I disagree with the governor’s interpretation. The language “no member shall be reappointed to the commission” should be interpreted as a strict prohibition of any reappointment to the commission since there was no qualifier of time stated in the law that would permit commissioners to serve nonconsecutive terms. Therefore, any reappointment must be considered unlawful. The argument that this is a new appointment for Governor Carcieri is irrelevant as the law applies first and foremost to the commissioner’s not serving more than one term. The appointing authority, in this case the governor, is incidental to this primary goal.

A number of other key figures in the creation of the JNC, including then-Senate Majority Leader Paul Kelly, then-Lt. Gov. Robert Weygand and Phil West of Common Cause, agreed that the legislative intent of the strict term limit was to limit the political influence that had become the trademark of a corrupted judicial system.

What could happen if one accepted the governor’s interpretation of the law and allowed former commissioners to serve repeated terms on the JNC, albeit with breaks between terms? First, commissioners could serve multiple terms. Indeed, given that the commission terms are staggered, commissioners or even a set of commissioners could alternately serve as long as both they and the appointing authority wished. Second, taken to its logical conclusion, this would create a “revolving door” for commission members wherein the same cadre of people could repeatedly serve on the commission. Without a doubt, this would undermine the commission’s “independent and nonpartisan” nature. As a consequence, any term limit would be rendered meaningless. When one considers that the JNC possesses the power to nominate an entire [judicial] branch of state government, recycling the same people over and over again is a sure recipe for cronyism and corruption.

Based upon a logical reading of the law as well as the legislative intent of the architects of the JNC, the governor’s appointment of Ms. Tow to the Judicial Nominating Commission must be considered illegal. If allowed to stand, reappointing the same people to the JNC would undermine the independence of the JNC. In time, a tainted merit-selection process for state judges could lead to another breakdown in public confidence in Rhode Island’s system of justice.

James C. Sheehan, of North Kingstown, is a Rhode Island state senator.