Tag: Arkansas Supreme Court

Both of the candidates seeking to unseat Justice Courtney Goodson for a spot on the Arkansas Supreme Court say they'll work to stamp out "judicial advocacy" on the high court -- even though neither cited examples of such activism at work. "Honestly, I think that people are looking for a change," Sterling said, before adding, "I have not heard specific criticisms of certain cases or specific judges." [FULL LIST: Statewide contested races in May 22 primary] The election for the court seat, along with other judicial races, will be held May 22. The Judicial Crisis Network, an out-of-state conservative group that has spent big money in campaigns of recent years -- including Goodson's failed 2016 bid for chief justice -- revealed last week a six-figure ad purchase attacking Goodson. As for the accusations of "activism" on the court, Joshua Silverstein, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law, said the term was first used in a non-derogatory way by political scientists and has lost much of its usefulness after being adopted by political campaigns. "I have not seen any indication that the Arkansas Supreme Court is any more influenced by politics than courts anywhere else," Silverstein said. Two administrative aspects of the court that are of interest mostly to attorneys with cases before the court have become issues in the campaign: oral arguments and the high court's abstraction requirement. In April, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the court was holding fewer oral arguments over the past two years than it had in previous recent years. The other issue, abstraction, has to do with the court's requirement that attorneys with appeals before the court meticulously summarize the important portions of the original trial transcript. Goodson and Sterling say the requirement is antiquated, and that it adds time and costs to the trial work.