From Wednesday's decision of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in Benson v. McKee (opinion by Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg, joined by Chief Justice Paul Suttell and Justice William Robinson; Justices Erin Lynch Prata and Melissa Long did not participate):
In 2019 the General Assembly enacted the Reproductive Privacy Act (the RPA), effectively granting a right to abortion in line with Roe v. Wade, and repealing certain statutes otherwise prohibiting abortion in this state that were flatly unconstitutional…. [Plaintiffs sued] to challenge the General Assembly's authority to enact the RPA, and also seeking a declaration of their legal rights and status under certain statutes that were repealed by the RPA….
The adult plaintiffs' claims may be summarized as alleged voter suppression and deprivation of the right to vote. The adult plaintiffs argue that they have standing because they are "asserting a plain, direct and adequate interest in maintaining the effectiveness of their votes, … not merely a claim of the right, possessed by every citizen, to require that the Government be administered according to the law." These plaintiffs contend that they specifically pled that "Defendants wrongly 'suppressed' their negative vote against Defendants' passage and signing of the RPA."
Viewing the allegations in their pleadings in the light most favorable to the adult plaintiffs, we are of the opinion that they lack standing to bring this action under any conceivable set of facts. The adult plaintiffs merely assert that they had the right to vote against passage of the RPA and were deprived of that right. However, no member of the public—other than elected legislators—was afforded an opportunity to vote for or against its enactment. We know of no authority to suggest that a general election or referendum was mandated in this instance, nor do the adult plaintiffs provide us with any authority….
