Bill introduced to fix the Irons decision
Citizen action needed

House Majority Leader Gordon Fox has introduced bill number H7357 that will allow citizens to vote on a Constitutional Amendment to restore jurisdiction over the General Assembly to the state's Ethics Commission. Co-sponsors are Representatives Fierro, Hearn, Marcello, and Walsh. Senator J. Michael Lenihan has promised to introduce the same bill in the Senate.

This bill was crafted by Common Cause Rhode Island and Operation Clean Government after the Supreme Court upheld a Superior Court decision last June in "William V. Irons vs. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission." This decision exempted members of the General Assembly from the Code for their core legislative acts based on the "speech in debate" clause of the state constitution, or in other words exempted legislators from prosecution by the Ethics Commission for their votes and speech that might involve conflicts of interest.

This marks the official kick-off effort by Common Cause and Operation Clean Government to get the question on the ballot in November. We will need your help to get this bill passed as the General Assembly session progresses. We will be calling on you to call your legislators to support this measure. For legislator contact information, go to http://sos.ri.gov/govdirectory/.

In 1986 the voters of Rhode Island overwhelmingly supported creation of an independent Ethics Commission to enforce a Code of Ethics for all public officials. Passage of this bill will restore this jurisdiction to the Ethics Commission. See Providence Journal articles by Katherine Gregg and Edward Fitzpatrick.