Three Arkansas Supreme Court justices have recused themselves from pending appeals before the court over whether suspension for nonpayment of annual license dues should disqualify a candidate for judicial office.
Justices Karen Baker, Paul Danielson and Courtney Hudson Goodson submitted recusal letters to Chief Justice Jim Hannah in the four lawsuits. The letters did not include reasons for recusal; they typically don’t.
None of the three justices returned phone messages or responded to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The appellants in the cases asked the court to decide the issues quickly because early voting begins Monday for the May 20 election. Only one of the lawsuits - against judicial candidate Valerie Thompson Bailey - resulted in a candidate being removed from the ballot.
All of the Supreme Court justices have been suspended for nonpayment of dues since 1974, according to information provided by the clerk of the courts.
Danielson was suspended four times between 1981 and 1988, and Baker was suspended four times between 1994 and 2003, according to clerk records.
Goodson was suspended for nonpayment of dues once in 2004.
The four other justices - Hannah, Donald Corbin, Cliff Hoofman and Jo Hart - have each been suspended twice for nonpayment of dues since 1974.
Nearly one-third of the state’s sitting judges, or 81, have been suspended for nonpayment of dues since 2006. More than 6,000 suspensions were issued over that time to nearly 4,000 of the state’s approximately 8,200 active lawyers.
Attorneys Todd Turner of Arkadelphia and Woody Bassett of Fayetteville and former Court of Appeals Judge Raymond Abramson were appointed as special justices Tuesday to fill the vacancies. Abramson is the only one of the three special justices seeking election in May and is running unopposed for the Court of Appeals.
None of the three has ever failed to pay his dues on time. “We checked that specifically given the case,” said Matt DeCample, spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe.
A spokesman for the Supreme Court said all of the cases have been expedited and that briefing is due by noon Friday.
Each of the lawsuits raises the question of whether a late-dues suspension results in a lapse of an attorney’s law license that should disqualify him as a judicial candidate.
The state constitution requires appeals court judges and Supreme Court justices to have been “licensed attorneys” for at least eight years “immediately preceding the date of assuming office.”
Circuit judges must be licensed for six years immediately before holding office and district judges for four years, according to the constitution.
Jeff Rosenzweig, an attorney for Judge H.G. Foster, who is a party in one of the appeals, said the case would ultimately have to be heard by a panel of judges. Rosenzweig said it was up to the justices whether to recuse and that their decision “needs to be respected.”
“It has to be decided by someone, and so it’s appropriate to have the regularly chosen or regularly sitting judges [rule on the case] if they feel comfortable deciding,” Rosenzweig said.
Bill Bristow, a Jonesboro attorney representing Supreme Court clerk Les Steen in three of the appeals, said he also did not ask any of the justices to step away from the case. Bristow said he did not have an opinion on whether any of the justices should recuse.
“A decision like that is just for an individual judge or justice to make,” Bristow said.
Steen is included in the three lawsuits because he administers licensing and fees for the state’s attorneys.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/30/2014