PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Legal Newsline) - It took a year for Democrats in the U.S. Senate to confirm the controversial nomination of a personal injury lawyer as a federal judge, but now they have him on their side in one of the many court fights over new policies implemented by President Donald Trump.
Judge John "Jack" McConnell was a generous giver to Democrat causes as he worked at the firm Motley Rice before Barack Obama nominated him to the Rhode Island bench 15 years ago. Now, he's blocked Trump's spending freeze in a challenge brought by 24 Democrat state attorneys general and one Democrat governor, Kentucky's Andy Beshear.
His February ruling ordered the federal government to keep the cash-tap on for $3 trillion in spending on various programs. Though the Trump Administration never filed a motion for McConnell to recuse himself - which could've included his long history of advocacy for the Democrat Party, a connection to a nonprofit supported by government funding and addressed claims McConnell's impartiality is jeopardized by his daughter's employment with the Department of Education - it did not.
Instead, Elon Musk and others called for McConnell's impeachment, as the judge has ruled against a stay of his order while the feds pursue an appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit also denied a stay.
House Resolution 241, introduced by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., seeks to impeach McConnell for "high crimes and misdemeanors."
"Rather than adhering to the oath he took to uphold the Constitution when he was sworn as Chief Judge of the District Court of Rhode Island, Chief Judge John James McConnell Jr. knowingly politicized and weaponized his judicial position to advance his own political views and beliefs," the articles of impeachment say.
Gripes include nearly $700,000 in political donations to Democratic committee, causes and campaigns, plus past comments and his role as director of Crossroads Rhode Island. That group received $18.6 million in government funding in 2023.
McConnell spent 14 years as treasurer for the Rhode Island Democratic Committee while a private lawyer and hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in 2004.
As a political donor, two of his favorite targets were the Democrat senators in his own state who put his name up for a federal judgeship in 2010. One of them was a former state attorney general who hired McConnell and Motley Rice to push a controversial "public nuisance" claim against companies that formerly made lead paint.
After Sheldon Whitehouse left the AG's office, McConnell and his wife pumped $12,600 into his campaign fund and hosted a fundraiser. Whitehouse went to the Senate in 2007.
Motley Rice lawyers have given Whitehouse close to $84,000 through the years.
Beginning in 2001, the McConnells gave Sen. Jack Reed $15,530, including $8,800 for his 2008 re-election campaign. All totaled, the McConnells gave $694,000 to Democratic campaigns and committees from 1993-2010.
It was reported in 2020 that McConnell had given the most political money of any judge appointed by either former President Barack Obama or President Trump during his first term.
McConnell's nomination was complicated by his lead paint case, as, at the time, a lawsuit against Motley Rice from Sherwin-Williams said lawyers there stole privileged documents with the help of a former Sherwin-Williams employee.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said then McConnell lied when he was questioned about the situation by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"In 2010, in his answers to written questions from the committee, Mr. McConnell told members, that 'I would not say I was familiar with the documents in any fashion,'" he said Tuesday.
"Only a few months later, in September of 2010, this same nominee gave a deposition in an Ohio court where he testified that he was the first attorney at his firm to review the documents in question...that he had drafted a newspaper editorial citing information that had come from those documents and that portions of those documents were incorporated in a brief filed under his signature."
McConnell's lead paint case failed in Rhode Island. The alleged stolen documents included a 34-page presentation made to Sherwin-Williams' board of directors detailing the costs of defending lead paint cases.
An Ohio judge ultimately ruled Motley Rice should keep that information secret from the public, and the sides reached an agreed permanent injunction in 2015 ahead of a trial.
McConnell also represented some states in their lawsuits against the tobacco industry. His work, and the work of other private attorneys, led to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. It had an estimated worth of $246 billion over its first 25 years and allowed for annual payments made to the attorneys who litigated the case.