Former Justice Flanders Joins Center’s Board

Will Explore Development of an Internal Strategic Litigation Capacity

Providence, RI – The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is pleased to announce that former R.I. Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders, Jr. has joined its Board of Directors, now totaling 14 members.

An Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1996 thru 2004, Flanders is also well known for his 2018 candidacy as the Republican nominee for the United States Senate and for his appointment as “receiver” for the city of Central Falls in 2011. Flanders, who is now a partner with the Providence-based law firm, Whelan, Corrente, & Flanders, also spent many years with the Hinckley Allen law firm.

“As a long-time admirer of the Center’s work, I look forward to exploring with Mike Stenhouse the viability of building a new strategic litigation capacity for our organization,” commented Flanders. 

“With our state suffering from a sharp policy turn to the left, and with legislative leaders unchecked and out-of-control in their devotion to special-interests, one strategy is to look into whether not some of the most harmful laws and regulations on our books are even constitutional,” added Stenhouse, the Center’s CEO.

Across the nation, it is a growing trend for state-based think-tanks, like the Center, to develop their own, internal legal capacity to challenge potentially unconstitutional statutes.

A Brown University and Harvard Law School graduate, Flanders has served in dozens of public, civic, professional, and nonprofit leadership capacities – receiving multiple special honors and awards. Like Stenhouse, who had an eight-year minor and major league baseball career, Flanders was also a minor league professional baseball player.

The entire list of the Center’s Board, along with a listing of its staff and adjunct scholars, can be found on its About Us webpage.