By Daniel Fisher | Legal Newsline
The Center Square

The federal judge who ordered President Trump to continue paying food-stamp benefits owes his fortune to cigarettes and Democratic political ties forged in Rhode Island.

During the confirmation process in 2011, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. disclosed he would collect $2.5 million to $3.1 million per year in fees through 2024 for his role in helping to negotiate the $240 billion national tobacco settlement in 1998. His total take, perhaps as much as $78 million, was but a small slice of the $14 billion in fees private attorneys made for representing state governments in lawsuits against the tobacco industry.

The payday eased McConnell’s transition from high-earning partner with Motley Rice, a South Carolina plaintiff law firm, to federal judge. But it was a bumpy ride, as business leaders and Republicans opposed his nomination by then-President Barrack Obama in 2010, delaying it until the following year.

“We can think of no greater conflict of interest than to have him sitting in judgment on cases brought by some of the very plaintiffs’ firms that he partnered with to give him this multimillion-dollar windfall,” the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform said in 2010, in its first official opposition to a federal judicial candidate.

McConnell this week ruled that, despite the federal government shutdown, Trump can’t withhold SNAP benefits, saying, “People have gone without for too long.”

“The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur,” McConnell added. “That’s what irreparable harm here means.”

McConnell was born in 1958 in Providence to John McConnell, a Marine officer and Korean War veteran, and his wife Mary Jane. He was one of six boys including a brother Robert who is still a partner with Motley Rice.

He graduated from Brown University and Case Western Law School and married the daughter of the Rhode Island Supreme Court justice he had clerked for, then spent 20 years with Motley Rice involved in high-profile cases including Rhode Island’s public nuisance lawsuit against lead paint manufacturers.

He won the potentially lucrative job with the help of Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, then Rhode Island Attorney General. Whitehouse had good reason to help out: McConnell had long been treasurer of the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee as well as a heavy contributor to the party, according to campaign finance records and a 2020 investigation by Roll Call.

McConnell and his wife contributed more than $700,000 to Democratic causes up until he joined the federal bench, Roll Call reported.

“There is nothing wrong with people contributing money to political candidates or parties or causes they believe in,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said in 2011. “But it is another matter when these contributions are made in connection with no-bid contracts or apparent political favors.”

McConnell convinced a jury to award the state damages in the lead paint case, but the Rhode Island Supreme Court threw out the verdict, ruling the public nuisance theory was inappropriate for a lawsuit over sales of a legal product. While McConnell had once described public nuisance as a “a whacky idea,” after losing at the Supreme Court he said the justices “got it . . . terribly wrong” by letting “wrongdoers off the hook.”

As a judge, McConnell has proven a committed foe to the Trump Administration. In January, he issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from freezing billions of dollars in federal grants, prompting vociferous attacks from conservatives including Elon Musk, who said: “Impeach this activist posing as a judge!” on his X platform.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde introduced an impeachment resolution in March, saying the judge “knowingly politicized and weaponized his judicial position to advance his own political views and beliefs.”

The representative cited a report by America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit law firm, accusing McConnell of having a conflict of interest because he had long served as chairman of Crossroads, a Rhode Island charity that received federal grant money through the state.

The AFL report said Crossroads had engaged in questionable transactions while McConnell was on the board, including purchasing real estate at above-market prices from another board member who previously had been involved in a bribery scandal that sent former Rhode Island Gov. Edward D. DiPrete to jail in 1998.

Judge McConnell has complained about the barrage of personal attacks, telling Bloomberg News earlier this year that he received abusive calls and messages and a death threat after conservative activist Laura Loomer posted the name and photo of his daughter on X and accused him of conflict of interest.

“I’ve been on the bench almost 15 years and I must say, it’s the one time that actually shook my faith in the judicial system and the rule of law,” McConnell said in July.