Massachusetts' Highest Court To Hear Casino Referendum Case

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Paul Tuthill

Published May 4, 2014 at 10:39 AM EDT

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments Monday on whether a question to repeal casino gambling should appear on the November election ballot.

The decision by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office to ban the question from the ballot is being challenged in the state’s highest court by anti-casino activists led by John Ribiero, chairman of the group Repeal the Casino Deal.

" There is no reason for us to be kept off the ballot."

Among those filing legal briefs opposing the casino referendum is Domenic Sarno, mayor of Springfield, where MGM has proposed a downtown casino.

" I am fighting for an economic development project of well over $800 million."

A ruling from the SJC is expected by July.

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Paul Tuthill

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.

See stories by Paul Tuthill

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