PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island's revolving door statute, adopted after two consecutive Supreme Court justices resigned amid scandal, does not apply to the Supreme Court, a Superior Court judge ruled last week in a twenty-nine-page decision.

The law requires a legislator to spend one year outside government before taking an appointment. It exempts constitutional offices. The Supreme Court is a constitutional office.

The two justices whose resignations prompted the law also held constitutional offices.

"The statute is clear," said a spokesman for the Ethics Commission, which has voted to appeal. "It's clear in a way we disagree with."

Asked whether the exemption swallows the rule, the spokesman said the commission's position is that it does, and that this had been noticed.

The Judicial Nominating Commission, which vets applicants, advanced all five candidates rather than narrowing the field, a step the panel described as narrowing.

Four members who voted to advance the leading candidate had donated to his campaign, one of them this year.

Reached for comment, an aide said the members had disclosed nothing because nothing had been requested, and that a donation reflects an opinion formed before the process rather than during it.

"You want people on the panel who know the bar," the aide said. "Knowing the bar is how you end up having written a check."

The nominee retains access to a $4.7 million campaign account. Asked at his interview why the account had not been dispersed, he explained that dispersing it would have made the outcome appear predetermined.

The commission accepted this. One member noted that retaining the money in order to avoid the appearance of certainty had produced no appearance of anything, which he called the correct result.

The Governor has twenty-one days to nominate. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the House and the Senate, one of which the leading candidate led until May.

At press time, no member of the public had been able to establish which body was reviewing which question.

The Ethics Commission is appealing a ruling that resolved the matter it was investigating. The Judicial Nominating Commission has finished. The Governor has not started.

"Everyone's doing their part," the Ethics spokesman said. "That's the process. It's designed so nobody has to hold all of it."

The seat has been vacant since March.