A Conversation with Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Melissa Long 

In November, State Court Report, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Northwestern University Law Review hosted a symposium on state constitutional law. Several state supreme court justices who participated in the program sat down for brief interviews with State Court Report, which we are publishing as a series.

Justice Melissa Long was appointed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court in 2021, becoming the state’s first Black high court justice. She was previously an associate justice on the Rhode Island Superior Court. Before joining the bench, Long held several roles in Rhode Island’s government, including deputy secretary of state.

In her interview, Long spoke about how state courts can educate and serve the public, shore up trust in democratic institutions, and search for innovative solutions.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What did you think your legal career would look like when you were in law school?

It’s so funny when I think about that because it looks nothing like what I would have imagined.

Both of my parents had been in the army at one point, and public service was part of my DNA. I knew that I wanted to be in the DC area and work in some kind of public service capacity. I had a five-year plan: I thought I would do a clerkship in a state court trial court right out of law school, get some litigation experience at the Fairfax County Attorney’s Office doing civil litigation, and then pivot. My dream was to work for the Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Consumer Protection. At the time, they were doing this work around the misleading advertising with the Joe Camel ads getting kids to smoke cigarettes, and I thought that’s what I wanted to do.

But I had met a really nice guy from Rhode Island in my law school class [and we ended up getting married]. And about four years into that five-year plan, we decided to move to Rhode Island. I thought, okay, I moved around all over the world as a kid [because of my parents’ military service] — I can go and live in Rhode Island for two to three years and see how it goes. Obviously, it took.

The move required me to think deeply about what I wanted to accomplish through public service work. When you think about the values that are important to you and the work that serves those values, and you might be amazed at where you end up.

What advice do you wish you had received when you were a law student?

One of the things that I often tell undergraduates is take a little time in between undergraduate and law school to get context for the world and for what you’re going to be learning. I went straight to law school from undergraduate. I was in the first generation in my family to go to law school, and when I arrived there in the early ’90s, a lot of folks had had these spectacular jobs, doing all kinds of things that were just incredible. For me, coming right out of undergraduate, it felt a little bit intimidating.

And, to law students: Believe in yourself, because you will get through. Especially if you have come to law school on the younger side without having had prior jobs. It’s okay. You don’t have to know everything.

How do the challenges that law students face differ from what you experienced?

There’s a report from Tufts University, Protect Democracy, and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement showing that members of Generation Z share a deep skepticism of democracy as they are experiencing it today. I think that’s a huge challenge because our work, legal institutions in a constitutional democracy, and our code of professional responsibility depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority. So, if we have a generation of young people who are skeptical about democracy, that’s a challenge for the legal institutions that these young lawyers are going into.

We have to regain the belief in the rule of law, to the extent that belief has been lost, and strengthen it. One of the recommendations in that report is that we need to learn from Gen Zs and millennials what works — what is it that will help them believe in democracy, believe in the rule of law, believe in legal institutions? They are the experts on their own generations.

What are some challenges facing state courts?

It’s this sense of people not necessarily thinking that courts serve them. People’s trust in our institutions of democracy is fraying, not just for young people. There’s also data showing that women and people of color don’t believe that courts are accountable and transparent. This is where I like to go back to the roots of my schooling at George Mason University. George Mason was one of the founding fathers, and there’s this great quote he wrote in 1776: “In such times as these are, [it is] every man’s duty to contribute his mite to the public service.” That’s true today too. We need to figure out how to roll up our sleeves. I am a big believer in public engagement.

I think judges are educators. That’s what we do in our opinions. But I can’t just stay in a courthouse and expect people to read all of my opinions and understand democracy that way. Only a certain subset of people are reading our opinions, so we need to get out and educate. It’s something that state judges are absolutely equipped to do because we are from these communities, we know these communities.

This is also related to the fact that there’s life tenure for judges in Rhode Island. If we are not elected or reelected by the people — which is the accountability check that exists in other states for judges who are facing voters — then the onus is greater on us to get out and be part of sharing knowledge about what state courts do.

More than 95 percent of all cases are filed in state court. We are doing things to innovate to help solve people’s problems. That’s who comes to courthouses, right? People with problems. I’m not sure that people recognize we are innovating to solve problems. How do we help them understand that? We’ve got to do our part to educate them.

The good news for state courts is that we are in better shape than the federal courts. The National Center for State Courts has been surveying court users dating back to, I think, 2014. In the 2010s, the numbers were much higher than they are now, and they then started to decline around 2020. And now we’re seeing an uptick again. So that’s great news that we’re doing stuff that is helping people have faith in our institutions.

What do you enjoy about being a state judge?

Oh gosh, I feel so lucky to go to work every day and do what I do. It goes back to this desire to be a public servant. When people come to our courthouses, they’re often at the lowest point of their lives. We are a forum for them to tell their stories. What our job is, when you get right down to it, is to listen to people tell their stories, apply the rule of law as it bears upon those stories, and then explain to people why the law dictates a certain outcome.

It is an awesome responsibility. For someone who was always interested in public service, I feel like it’s beyond what I could have imagined I would do when I was a law student. I used to be a trial judge, and you certainly feel it in those cases because people are right in front of you. At the appellate level, it’s a little more difficult because there’s so much more paper, but one of the things that I try to impress upon my law clerks is we need to remember that these are people’s stories. These are not abstract concepts and constructs.

What are the most memorable opinions that you’ve been able to participate in?

I like to say that every case is important to the litigants. We need to remember that.

That said, one of my more memorable opinions is a concurrence I wrote in State v. Garcia, a 2024 case that focused on jury selection. Over the last almost 40 years, we’ve seen how the legal standard known as the Batson framework — which refers to the test for whether using peremptory challenges to strike people of color from juries is discriminatory — doesn’t work.

A lack of jury diversity generally is an issue. How do we get diverse populations to show up for jury service, and once they’re there, how do we make sure that we are seating diverse juries? I wrote a concurrence in Garcia because I don’t know what the solution is, but we need to be thinking about a solution.

I was really fascinated by the number of state courts and justices who are thinking about problems with the Batson framework. Our sister state, Connecticut, is taking a stab at trying to figure out a solution with a task force on jury selection that’s studying the issue on the administrative side. In my Garcia opinion I talk about how that is a great idea.

It’s memorable to me because it’s an important problem that we need to solve as a country, and there are states that have interesting ideas that are worth pursuing.

What do you wish more people understood about state courts and constitutions?

State courts are where justice happens in this country. The sheer numbers tell us that. So get to know your state courts. Learn about state courts, learn about what’s going on in them, and figure out ways in which you might be able to engage. And show up for jury service!

Gabriella Sanchez is a staff writer and editor at the Brennan Center for Justice.

Suggested Citation: Gabriella Sanchez, A Conversation with Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Melissa Long, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Feb. 9, 2026), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/conversation-rhode-island-supreme-court-justice-melissa-long