In a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the emergency clause is defective for Act 376 of 2019 that added new requirements for getting a referendum of a state law on the ballot.
The high court directed Secretary of State John Thurston to address the Safe Surgery Arkansas Committee’s filings to place on the 2020 general election ballot a referendum on Act 579 of 2019 under the legal framework prior to Act 376 because its new requirements were not in effect when the filings were made. Act 579 allows optometrists to conduct a broader range of surgeries.
The court declined the committee’s request to order Thurston to certify the proposed referendum for the ballot.
In August, the Safe Surgery Arkansas Committee asked the high court to order Thurston to certify the committee’s petition to place a referendum on Act 579 on the 2020 general election ballot.
The committee’s action came after Thurston’s office concluded on Aug. 2 that the committee failed to submit enough signatures of registered voters to qualify the proposal.
The Safe Surgery Committee challenged Thurston’s decision to apply Act 376 of 2019, which it said disenfranchised 61,055 legal voters who petitioned the secretary to certify a proposed referendum.
Act 376 added a new filing requirement for canvassers. Thurston declined to count most of the signatures submitted by Safe Surgery Arkansas
because he said they were obtained in violation of Act 376.