Given a review of recent history in Springfield, 2025 may have expressed the disgruntlement many expected in 2023. However, the reasons may not be particular to the City of Homes. A foul wind from Washington was blowing and perhaps coloring the municipal electorate as much as anything. Courts also played a larger role in the city’s political fortunes than they had in years.
This past Wednesday, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a lower court ruling and, in effect, reanimated—although did not fully resurrect—the prospect of a biomass plant in Springfield. The decision gives the biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard enough life to punch open the project’s coffin.
After two years in office, Governor Maura Healey has made a mark on the judiciary. Governors can effectively choose whomever they wish to sit on the bench, subject to Governor’s Council confirmation. To that end, advocates have been pressing Healey to pick someone from Hampden County to join the Appeals Court.
The legal drama around the criminal indictments arising from the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home COVID-19 outbreak has flown under the radar since the appeal began. The case, however, jolted a bit in public view again as Healey’s office sought direct review from the Supreme Judicial Court.
The commonwealth’s case against two administrators at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home is not over, yet. On Tuesday, Attorney General Maura Healey’s office announced that she would appeal a pre-Thanksgiving ruling that dismissed charges against former Bennett Walsh and Dr. David Clinton.
The highest court in the land—of Massachusetts at least—will hear and likely resolve one of the most vexing controversies in the City of Homes. On Wednesday, the Supreme Judicial Court accepted direct review of Hampden Superior Court Judge Francis Flannery’s ruling that Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno must appoint the Police Commission.
BOSTON—Appearing before a state appellate court in the latest episode of the long-running battle over a power plant in Springfield, opponents and advocates jousted over a lower court’s 2014 ruling that had suddenly reversed the developer’s losing streak to build the biomass-fueled facility. What started