Arkansas Supreme Court

From Judgepedia

The Arkansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of Arkansas. Since 1925, it has consisted of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices.^[1] The Justices are elected in non-partisan elections for eight-year terms.

Jurisdiction

Article seven, section four of the Arkansas Constitution describes the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court; the court only has appellate jurisdiction.^[2]

The court's justices

Selection of justices

See Arkansas Supreme Court elections for information on the two seats on the court that will open in 2010.

Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court are elected for eight year terms in non-partisan elections. Non-partisan elections were implemented in 2000 with the passage of Amendment 3. If a vacancy occurs, the governor of the state appoints an interim justice. That justice must stand for election at the next general election that takes place at least four months after the vacancy. To remove a judge, the Senate and the House of Representatives may convict a judge with two thirds of the Senate vote, the governor may remove the judge based on the two houses, and finally, the judicial discipline and disability commission may recommend to the Supreme Court that the judge be suspended or removed. The Court may then decide whether to follow the recommendation.

Qualifications

To serve on the court, a candidate for justice must meet this basic criteria:

• "Be at least 30 years old
• Be of good moral character
• Be learned in the law
• Possess U.S. citizenship
• Have been a resident of Arkansas for more than two years
• Have practiced law for at least eight years"^[3]

Current justices

The justices are listed here in order of their seniority on the court.

Chief justice

In Arkansas, the position of Chief Justice is elective; the voters of the state choose the chief justice in a statewide election. During a temporary period of absence or incapacity of the Chief Justice, an acting Chief Justice is selected by the Court from among the remaining justices. The current Chief Justice of the court is Jim Hannah.

History of the court

The first judges of the court were: Daniel Ringo as Chief Justice, who served from 1836 to 1844, Townsend Dickinson, who served through 1842, and Thomas Lacy, whose term lasted until 1845.^[4] From 1864-2000, judicial elections were conducted by partisan elections. Under the state's first constitution, the Arkansas Supreme Court consisted of three judges including one Chief Justice, all three of whom were elected by the Arkansas General Assembly. The Arkansas Constitution of 1874 was amended in 1924 with Amendment 9 to add two more judges and allow the Assembly to increase the number to seven, which it did a year later by Act 205 of 1925.

External links

• Arkansas Supreme Court Official Site

References

Portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia.

The Arkansas Project on Judgepedia

Supreme Court Court of Appeals Federal court of appeal for Arkansas

Federal eastern district for Arkansas Federal western district for Arkansas