Two big decisions from the Arkansas Supreme Court today (actually several, but four of them are about the same issue). We will update the blog with more information later, but summaries of the decisions follow. We’re getting these out quickly, so please let us know if you read the opinions and have a different understanding.
Supreme Court Holds Candidates for Judicial Office not Disqualified for Delinquency in Paying Dues
The Supreme Court held that (1) a suspension for failure to pay dues is not the same as not having a license; and (2) that suspending an attorney without notice is a violation of Due Process. Justice Hart wrote separately, concurring in part and dissenting in part. She agreed with point 1, which she argued made point 2 moot. Justice Corbin dissented on both points, and would have held that a delinquency makes a candidate ineligible.
Here are PDFs of the opinions:
Supreme Court Allows Voter ID Law to Remain in Place (For Now); Strikes Down Rules Relating to Absentee Voters
On what appear to be procedural grounds, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a circuit court opinion holding that Arkansas’s voter ID law was unconstitutional. The Court held that the constitutionality of the statute was not properly before the Circuit Court. Presumably, this leaves open the question of whether the law could be attacked in the future. The Arkansas Supreme Court also held that the Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners had acted outside the scope of its authority when it promulgated rules allowing for provisional ballots for absentee ballots, where the statute did not expressly allow for such a rule.
Here is a PDF of the opinion:
ArkansasAppeals.com 