We're all researching how the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled in the past and deconstructing what might be its overall ideological leanings. A legal expert who's been following the RI lead paint saga closely since 1999 and has access to a number of other legal experts provides this point of view.
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Legal Expert Opines on the RI Supreme Court, off-the-record. This opinion incorporates the views of a number of legal authorities who have been monitoring these legal proceedings in RI since the end of the 1990s:
Essentially, what my sources tell me is that the Rhode Island Supreme Court is not a court which would be considered an "activist" one. It seems to them and to me that the RI Supreme Court likes to see gradual changes in the law and not those which could be interpreted as drastic. In general, this Court tends to offer narrow opinions in which it only decides the matters immediately in front of it. That's to say: This Court hasn't in the past used opinions to make broad social commentary.
However, the Court is likely to give deference to the RI legal community at large and considers standing and respect within that community to be very important. Sources say that the conundrum is this: The RI Supreme Court, according to past rulings and other statements, is not likely to be comfortable with Superior Court Justice Michael Silverstein's decision in this case. That's primarily because it is a broad expansion of the public nuisance legal concept. But, would the RI Supreme Court reverse this decision and risk contempt of the RI legal community? That's hard to say.
Also, as most of us lead paint watchers know, RI is an old boys network in many ways. If the state Attorney General and or Judge Silverstein has strong enough pull with the legal community at least it could mean that the RI Supreme Court justices bite their tongues.
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Other legal opinion welcome. Please contact me for on- or off-the-record posting (Mgenova981@aol.com).
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