William Philip Robinson III[2] (January 30, 1940)[3] is an American lawyer, academic, and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
[7] He has remained active at Boston College Law serving as a moot-court judge and working with the alumni association.
The Superior court had ruled that Angela Luis and Kevin Gaugler, who had lived together for more than 20 years, were married in common law.
[12] He dissented in 2017 in a pension case involving former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci's top administrator who had been convicted on six felonies in the Operation Plunder Dome scandal.
[14] In 2007, in a freedom on the press case, Robinson wrote the majority opinion in a libel suit filed against the New Bedford Standard Times by a man who allegedly left the scene of a fatal accident.
The newspaper had relied on a police report for its story and cited its fair-report privilege in its motion for summary judgment.
As he wrote as part of the 1989 legal case, "Maybe people will come forward and say the plaintiff is a, with all due respect to those in the court, has a tendency to lie, and that would be relevant, also."
[15] While making that case, Robinson was chastised by U.S. Magistrate Jacob Hagopian, who denied the school's motion to dismiss, saying that the teenager could not consent to such "detestable" acts.