You've got to know a guy at the State House to become a judge in Rhode Island. That, in short, is the perception that state Senator Dawn Euer is taking aim at with three bills that would change Rhode Island's judicial selection system.

The process of picking state judges began to come into focus this year when Governor Daniel J. McKee chose former Senate Majority Leader Michael J. McCaffrey for a state District Court judgeship and nominated former Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano  to be the Superior Court presiding justice. That focus sharpened when House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi emerged as a potential pick for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court, and former Senator Stephen R. Archambault and former Representative Michael J. Marcello became
finalists for a Superior Court vacancy.

Euer, a Newport Democrat, said consistently giving lifetime judicial appointments to former politicians or their family members has "a chilling effect" on who applies for vacancies.

"That is a huge problem because we have so many very talented lawyers across the state from all walks of life," Euer said. "Right now, the status quo seems to be that the only talent runs through the State House. What that does is send a signal out to folks that it’s just a patronage system."

Euer, a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairwoman, said she has concluded that "previous reform efforts have fallen far short of where we need to be as a state to make sure we have a merit-based selection process.”

On Tuesday, Euer joined in a unanimous Senate Judiciary Committee vote in favor of Montalbano's confirmation, which is expected to pass the full Senate on Thursday. She said he had answered her questions satisfactorily but her concerns about the process remain.

During the hearing, Senator Mark P. McKenney, a Warwick Democrat, said, " I've noticed in the papers just recently there's been an effort to disparage this idea of former legislators becoming judges." He said he understands judgeships shouldn't be "the exclusive territory" of former legislators. "But at the same time, your resume speaks for itself," he told Montalbano, praising his "judicial temperament." 

Senator Jake Bissaillon, a Providence Democrat, also noted merit selection has been raised in the press. But he told Montalbano, "Your credentials for this position are second to none." 

That discussion followed articles such as a Globe commentary piece in which Michael J. Yelnosky, former dean of the Roger Williams University School of Law, traced the history of scandals that led to a 1994 state constitutional amendment creating a merit-selection process for judges. Yelnosky argued that no sitting House speaker, "regardless of character and qualifications," can become a Supreme Court justice "without seriously damaging the court’s reputation."

And in a March 21 social media post, Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said, "The judicial selection process is an insider’s game. Everyone at the courthouse knows it. There’s more angling than during striped bass season."

Euer said the merit-selection process has become "a shell of what it is intended to be" – a "scam" that provides the veneer of an independent process while politicians pick the insiders they favor. "Around the State House, it’s the worst kept secret that those selections are not just influenced but directed from the State House," she said.

So Euer has proposed three pieces of legislation:

One bill would create a "blind review" of applications before any interview or public hearing. Identifying information, including the applicant’s name, would be removed, and the Judicial Nominating Commission would do its initial evaluation of applicants based on uniform, job-related criteria. She noted Massachusetts conducts a blind initial review of judicial applicants.

"We shouldn’t be doing judicial selections based upon vibes," Euer said. 

Another bill would require judicial candidates to disclose political donations, and allow the Rhode Island Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Ethnic Fairness appoint Judicial Nominating Commission members when members with expired terms are not replaced via the normal process.

A third bill would require the Family Court chief judge to appoint magistrates through the merit-selection process used for state judges.