A legal journalist who has been following the Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance litigation opines on what impacts the RI Supreme Court decision might have on current attorney general Patrick Lynch and former AG Sheldon Whitehouse:
"From what I know, it seems that Patrick Lynch has already been considered to be an activist AG who lacked credibility with the defense side of the equation and that reputation will be enhanced based on the defeat that he suffered.
"Lynch, for anyone who had paid close attention during the past three years, certainly showed questionable scruples with the Dupont 'settlement' and his statement caught in a transcript which indicated the dubious nature in the that arrangement. One has to wonder if all that will dent his aspirations beyond RI, assuming he has some.
"The more interesting question to me is: Now that Sheldon Whitehouse is a U.S. Senator, does the RI SC ruling which said the public nuisance aspect should have been dismissed at the outset mean anything to his ability to achieve things in Washington D.C.? Whitehouse inititated a spurious lawsuit, what does that say about him? Will the GOP make anything out of that, or is it small potatoes on the federal level?"
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