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William Robinson (Rhode Island)
2004 - Present
21
William P. Robinson is a judge of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2004.
Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) appointed Robinson to a lifetime term on the court in 2004 following the departure of Justice Robert Flanders Jr. He was confirmed by the Rhode Island General Assembly on July 30, 2004.[1] To read more about judicial selection in Rhode Island, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Robinson received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Before his appointment to the state supreme court, Robinson worked as an attorney from 1977 to 2004.[4] In addition to his legal career, Robinson both taught and worked as an administrator at the University of Connecticut.[1] He held elected office on the East Greenwich, R.I., School Committee from 1988 to 1996. From 2000 to 2003, Robinson was a member of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education.[5]
Biography
Robinson was born on Jan. 30, 1940, in Providence, R.I.[6] He received a bachelor's degree from Belgium's University of Louvain in 1962 and a master's degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1966.[7] Robinson received a doctorate in French and Spanish literature from the University of Connecticut in 1971.[1][7] Following the receipt of his doctorate, Robinson joined the University of Connecticut in a teaching and administrative capacity.[1]
Robinson received a law degree from Boston College in 1975 and began a clerkship at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.[7][4] He began to practice as an attorney in 1977 and continued until 2004. During that time, Robinson held elected office on the East Greenwich, R.I., School Committee from 1988 to 1996. From 2000 to 2003, he was a member of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education.[5]
Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) appointed Robinson to a lifetime term on the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 2004 following the departure of Justice Robert Flanders Jr.[1]
Appointments
Rhode Island Supreme Court (2004-present)
Robinson was appointed to a lifetime term on the court by Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) in 2004 following the departure of Justice Robert Flanders Jr. Robinson was confirmed by the Rhode Island General Assembly on July 30, 2004.[1]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
William
Robinson
Rhode Island
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Robinson donated $300 to Republican candidates. He was appointed by Gov. Donald Carcieri (R).
Other Scores:
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Robinson received a campaign finance score of -0.39, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was less liberal than the average score of -0.50 that justices received in Rhode Island.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[10]
State supreme court judicial selection in Rhode Island
- See also: Judicial selection in Rhode Island
The five justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court are appointed by the governor with help from a nominating commission made up of nine members. Supreme court nominees must then be approved by a majority vote of both the state House and the state Senate.[11] Justices serve for life or until they retire.
Qualifications
To serve on the Rhode Island Supreme Court, a judge must be:
- an attorney;
- licensed to practice law in the state; and
- a member of the state bar in good standing.[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice is chosen the same way as other justices are when appointed to the court. Like other judges, the chief justice serves in that capacity for life.[11]
Vacancies
Because Rhode Island judges serve for life or until they retire, the concept of a midterm vacancy has little relevance to the state's selection process. When a judge retires or passes away in office, the governor picks a nominee from a list from the judicial nominating commission. The nominee must be confirmed by a majority vote in both chambers of the state legislature.[11]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Rhode Island Judiciary, "About the Supreme Court," accessed July 23, 2021
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Justia.com, "William P. Robinson III," accessed July 23, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Arbitration.com, "William P. Robinson III," accessed July 23, 2021
- ↑ Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, "William P. Robinson III," accessed July 23, 2021
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Martindale.com, "Judge Profile: Hon. William P Robinson, III," accessed July 23, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Rhode Island," archived October 3, 2014
Federal courts:
First Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Rhode Island • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Rhode Island
State courts:
Rhode Island Supreme Court • Rhode Island Superior Court • Rhode Island District Court • Rhode Island Family Court • Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Court • Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal
State resources:
Courts in Rhode Island • Rhode Island judicial elections • Judicial selection in Rhode Island
