Associate Justice Victoria Lederberg

It was widely held that Justice Victoria Lederberg's part-time service as a municipal court judge did not qualify her for the Rhode Island Supreme Court.  However, she had served in the Senate and was chosen over other more highly qualified people.

Complaint One:   Victoria Lederberg, is another justice who joined Judge Bourcier in voting to deny Attorney Small the right to practice in Rhode Island without first seeking the court's permission.  [See Ethics Commission page] In her opinion piece in The Journal ("In defense of R.I. Supreme Court," March 23) Lederberg blamed the debacle on the media and on Atty. Small.   With regard to Mr. Small,  Lederberg quoted extensively from criminal statutes, although no criminal case was before the court.  In an earlier case, Justice Lederberg completely disregarded these same statutes when she joined the opinion praising lawyer Geoffrey Hazard Jr. for his opinion that the separation-of-powers regulation, which would have prohibited legislators from serving on Rhode Island boards and commissions, was beyond the power of the Ethics Commission.  Justice Lederberg heaped this praise on Mr. Hazard, even though he had also practiced law without first seeking permission from the Supreme Court.   Justices Bourcier and Lederberg never issued an opinion explaining their reasons for denying Mr. Small's motion to represent the Ethics Commission. Rather than explain their decision in a legal opinion, these justices went to the press to declare that Mr. Small had been denied the right to practice law in this state because he had committed the crime of not first obtaining their permission.  Justices Bourcier and Lederberg never issued an opinion explaining their reasons for denying Mr. Small's motion to represent the Ethics Commission. Rather than explain their decision in a legal opinion, these justices went to the press to declare that Mr. Small had been denied the right to practice law in this state because he had committed the crime of not first obtaining their permission.  On June 15, 2001, Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders issued a dissenting opinion in the matter involving the court's 2-to-1 decision denying Mr. Small the right to practice law in Rhode Island. Yet on June 19, this majority of two, Justices Bourcier and Lederberg, issued an unusual order directing that Justice Flanders's dissenting opinion not be published.  But Caught has published it!

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