David Sterling made the runoff for state Supreme Corut, backed by a gusher of dark and dirty money. His own ethical behavior gives little cause for encouragement.
UPDATE: Outside money propelled one candidate into a runoff for a state Supreme Court seat but failed to elect a favored candidate in a race for Arkansas Court of Appeals.
Pulaski Circcuit Judge Chris Piazza has ordered a halt to airing of attack ads against Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson, calling them "obscene and misleading." But a judge in a Northwest Arkansas case lifted a ban against the ads.
The unusual situation in Arkansas's Supreme Court race is beginning to attract attention from outside the state. Even before news broke of Martin's potential conflict, some questioned the judge's decision to grant a temporary restraining order before hearing the merits of the defamation claim.
"JCN advertising are false and continued publication of such ads demonstrate the Defendants’ reckless disregard for whether the ad is true or false. All of which constitutes actual malice on the part of the Defendants," Martin wrote.
Goodson's suit, filed in Pulaski County circuit court on Monday, calls the JCN's advertising "false, misleading, and defamatory." It's been assigned to Judge Chris Piazza and a hearing has been set for 10 a.m. this Friday.
The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative Washington D.C.-based political nonprofit, is spending big to defeat Associate Justice Courtney Goodson in a race for Arkansas Supreme Court — again.
Reliable sources say Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Kenneth Hixson will file for the Arkansas Supreme Court seat held by Justice Courtney Goodson, who has said she'll be seeking re-election.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has released the hourly rates charged by lawyers representing justices in the federal lawsuit by Judge Wendell Griffen. They top out at $975 an hour for a lawyer representing Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson.
Once again, those invested in the ongoing internal dysfunction at the Arkansas Supreme Court have some juicy reading. A pair of oral history interviews with recently retired justices Howard Brill and Cliff Hoofman have been posted to a growing collection of oral histories with retired Arkansas Supreme Court justices.