Goguen and Travis Working for Signed Letter from 80 Reps

     Reps. Emile Goguen and Phil Travis will be working today for a signed letter from 80 Reps to Speaker Finneran confirming that they will vote to remove one or more judges from the Supreme Judicial Court.

     There has been confusion in the past about Goguen’s Bill of Address in that many people have thought it required that Reps vote to remove all four of the judges, but lawyers have made it clear that would not be permitted and the vote must be on one judge at a time.

     Sally Pawlick will be working in the State House this morning to help coordinate the effort. “It was funny yesterday,” she says, “when one Rep who is on our side, told me that we should tell our lobbyist to visit the Reps today and tell them what is happening. We don’t have even one paid employee, much less a lobbyist. Everything is done by volunteers, but we have an abundance of them, thank goodness.”

     Pawlick will be distributing a letter to the Speaker which says: “A Bill of Address has been filed by Rep. Emile Goguen for the Removal of Justices Margaret Marshall, John Greaney, Roderick Ireland and Judith Cowin from the Supreme Judicial Court. We would like to vote in favor of Removal of one or more of the Justices and we respectfully request that you schedule a vote in the House of Representatives so that we are able to do so.”

     The Reps are being asked to join their name to the 23 legislators who have already signed the letter.

     A note which is attached to the letter says, “The time has come to make a decision. You will be either ‘with us’ or ‘against us.’ There can be no undecideds.”

     Yesterday, the Article 8 Alliance disclosed a list of four categories which indicated that 23 Reps have already signed the letter and 47 are expected to be “on board.” The latter group is the one that is expected to sign today. Only 66 out of the 180 are listed as diehards who are definitely against Removal. An additional 22 have personally told Goguen they are with him but have not yet made a definitive commitment.

     “There is no way that anyone could vote to retain these judges who have demonstrated that they will violate all the rules of judicial integrity in order to impose their personal agenda,” says Pawlick. “While even Republicans have concerns about the judges that Mitt Romney will appoint, we cannot continue with the present group. The citizens must make it clear to Romney that his appointments must be above politics on his part. But if the Democrats are concerned, how would they feel if Romney appoints just one judge who would be the kingpin?

     “The Democrats must remember that they control the Governor’s Council, which has a veto power over all judges. One would hope that that group of Democrats would not permit Romney to be arbitrary in his appointments.”