01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 17, 2004

In the closing rush of this year's legislative session, Rhode Island Chief Justice Frank Williams is seeking to boost his power by trying to cut out the governor from decisions about the judiciary's annual budget request. He calls this a "separation-of-powers" issue -- that the judiciary should be able to do what it wants without the governor having a say.

Even if his idea has merit, a change in government power of this magnitude should not be rushed through, glued to the state budget with little debate.

Issues involving construction, buying supplies and the like touch on state executive functions. It makes sense for the governor to have a say, with the legislature providing the ultimate budget check.

A separation-of-powers argument could be made were the governor trying to use his budget power to control how judges rule. That has not been the case, to our knowledge.

Indeed, it seems more likely that political influence would corrupt justice under the direct alliance with the legislature that Chief Justice Williams is trying to push through. He wants his request for money to go straight to the General Assembly, without the filter of the governor. So a chief justice would have much more power to cut deals with legislative leaders. Some 28 percent of House members are lawyers, and many of them argue in front of state courts regularly. They could conceivably get a better deal for their clients if they funded the judiciary to a chief justice's specifications.

Moreover, he or she would apparently set the salaries of judges, conceivably using that authority to reward and punish, without any check on that power, since state judicial appointments are for life.

If the chief justice's power shift is such a good idea, it should be vetted in legislative hearings as a separate bill, not tacked onto the budget and hurried past the public.

This marks the third time this year that the legislature has tried to undermine the governor's executive powers, as voters prepare this fall to amend the state constitution to create a true balance of power among the branches. The public rallied twice before to stop them. Citizens must speak out again, immediately. Please call your state representative and senator (find them at www.state.ri.us). Call House Speaker William Murphy at (401) 222-2466. Urge them to block Article 47.