Arkansas Supreme Court strikes law changing how constitutional challenges handled

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a measure that changed how constitutional challenges to state laws are handled, ruling that legislators overstepped their authority with the move.

The ruling revived a lawsuit over Independence County officials rescinding a voter-approved measure requiring elections to be conducted using hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.

In a unanimous decision, justices reversed a lower court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit because of Act 975, enacted last year. 

That law removed circuit courts’ authority to hear certain lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of state laws. Act 975 moved that authority to the state Court of Appeals.

Justices ruled the law violated Amendment 80 to the Arkansas Constitution, which spells out the authority of circuit courts. The amendment was approved by voters in 2000.

“The General Assembly’s role in state government is to shape public policy, but they must do so within the confines of the constitution,” Justice Cody Hiland wrote in the court’s opinion.

Act 975 affected lawsuits that directly challenged the constitutionality of state laws rather than how they were applied. 

Under the law, the appeals court’s ruling on such a case would still be appealable to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Supporters said the appeals court was a better venue than circuit courts because appeals judges are elected from around the state.

In Thursday’s ruling, justices ruled that voters made a “deliberate” choice about judicial power when they approved Amendment 80.

“They fixed the jurisdiction of our courts in the constitution itself, with limited room for the General Assembly to tinker with that configuration,” the ruling said. “That choice binds us. And we are not at liberty to disregard those constitutional limits.”

The lawsuit was filed by Bryan Norris, Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative Inc. and Restore Election Integrity Committee. Norris, an advocate for paper ballots, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for secretary of state, losing the runoff to state Sen. Kim Hammer.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Tim Griffin, who had intervened to defend the state law, said his office respected the court’s decision.

Voters in Independence County approved the paper ballot ordinance in 2024, but more than a year later the county quorum court rescinded the measure. 

Independence County Attorney Daniel Haney noted that the ruling did not address the merits of the case over the voter-backed initiative being overturned.

“We now at least have an opportunity to get a ruling as to whether a quorum court can amend or repeal an initiative measure that has passed, which is really what we want to know,” he said.