Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Barbara Webb recovering from head injury after fall

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Barbara Webb has been recovering from a fall in her home since early May, her husband confirmed Thursday.

The 69-year-old justice injured her head in the fall on May 6, had surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences the following day and is recuperating at a healthcare facility in Houston, said Doyle Webb, a former state senator and the Arkansas Public Service Commission chairman.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported on Webb’s injury Tuesday.

Webb’s absence from the court became known May 12. She was “temporarily unable to serve” while the court heard two constitutional challenges, two criminal appeals and a civil appeal, Chief Justice Karen Baker wrote in a letter to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Baker’s letter did not explain Webb’s absence. Sanders appointed Cory Cox as a special justice to replace Webb for the two constitutional challenges, in which lower courts ruled that Sanders violated the state constitution in her scheduling of special elections to fill two vacant legislative seats. The high court dismissed the cases as moot because the special elections had already occurred.

Doyle Webb said he expects his wife to return to the Supreme Court by its fall term. She was elected to an eight-year term on the high court in 2020 and unsuccessfully ran for chief justice in 2024.

Arkansas’ high court is technically nonpartisan, but Republican-linked justices hold a 5-2 majority that includes Webb.

She was previously chief law judge at the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission and the first female circuit judge for Saline County, where she and her husband live. She is also a former prosecuting attorney.