Viveiros v. Town of Middletown

While the result reached by the Court might meet with my approval if I were sitting as a delegate to a constitutional convention, my judicial role requires me to focus on what the language of the constitutional provision at issue actually says. From that perspective, I cannot agree with the Court’s reading of what I consider to be the clear language of article 13 of the Rhode Island Constitution. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

I have read article 13 of our Constitution over and over again, and each time I have been struck by the following pellucid language in section 6 of that article:

“When…