A group that backs a 2019 state law that will allow optometrists to perform a wider range of eye surgeries filed a lawsuit Friday with the state Supreme Court in the group's latest attempt to stop an effort to have voters reject the law.
The optometrist-backed group is the Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee, which was formed to defend and advocate for the law, Act 579 of 2019.
The committee's wide-ranging lawsuit, filed against Republican Secretary of State John Thurston, comes after Thurston determined Jan. 31 that the opposing Safe Surgery Arkansas committee -- sponsors of a proposed referendum on Act 579 -- submitted enough valid signatures of registered voters to qualify their measure for the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The Safe Surgery Arkansas committee prefers that the specified surgeries be performed by only ophthalmologists.
"Our state law governing the petition process is designed to protect voters against fraud," said Vicki Farmer, chairwoman of the Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee.
"In this case, not only were those requirements not met, but in many instances, paid petitioners presented voters with false information about Act 579 in order to induce them to sign the petition," Farmer said in her committee's news release.
In response to the lawsuit, Adam Gray, an attorney for the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee, said, "Again and again, this group has attempted to dismiss the will of the people who seek the right granted them by the state constitution to place this referendum on the ballot.
"Voters deserve an opportunity to decide whether nonmedical doctors should be allowed to perform surgery on the eye," he said in a written statement.
On Jan. 28, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen dismissed a separate lawsuit by the Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee that sought to block the proposed referendum by stopping Thurston's office from putting the proposal on the ballot.
In that dismissed lawsuit, the Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee said the Safe Surgery Committee's petition was invalid because Attorney General Leslie Rutledge didn't approve the proposal's ballot title and popular name as required by state law in effect at the time. A new law on the initiative and referendum process -- Act 376 of 2019 -- changed that process.
That lawsuit was filed shortly after the state Supreme Court declined the Healthy Eyes committee's request for the court to reconsider its 4-3 ruling on Dec. 12 directing Thurston to count all the signatures collected by the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee.
In addition to filing the latest lawsuit against Thurston, the Healthy Eyes committee on Friday filed notice with the state Supreme Court that it plans to appeal Griffen's dismissal of the committee's earlier lawsuit and Griffen's denial of the committee's request for a temporary restraining order to prevent certification of the proposed referendum's signatures.
In the latest lawsuit filed Friday, the Healthy Eyes committee asked the high court to declare that the referendum petition process on Act 579 was insufficient. The optometrists' committee wants the high court to order Thurston not to include the proposed referendum on the Nov. 3 general election ballot or, if it is included on the ballot, order Thurston not to count, canvass or certify any ballots cast for the referendum.
The committee also asked the high court to declare that Act 579 is in effect because there was never a legally effective referendum against it.
The Healthy Eyes committee also alleged in its latest lawsuit that the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee presented false information in June and July last year about Act 579 to induce individuals to sign the petition for the proposed referendum.
For example, the Healthy Eyes committee claimed a Safe Surgery Arkansas committee's paid-canvasser in Benton County fraudulently represented that Act 579 allows optometrists to perform LASIK and cataract surgery.
In Friday's suit, the Healthy Eyes committee contended that the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee's alleged petition fraud invalidates the petition and also again claims that the proposed referendum's ballot title and popular name are invalid because the attorney general never approved them.
The Healthy Eyes Committee also asserted in the suit that the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee failed to comply with other mandatory paid canvasser and petition requirements and also failed to submit the requisite number of valid signatures of registered voters.
Thurston spokesman Chris Powell on Friday declined to comment about the lawsuit filed Friday.
On Jan. 31, Powell said the secretary of state's office intended to certify the proposed referendum to the county boards of election commissioners in August.
Act 579 will allow optometrists to administer injections around the eye; remove bumps and lesions from eyelids; and perform certain types of laser surgery performed by ophthalmologists -- specifically capsulotomy, a surgery performed after cataract surgery, and trabeculoplasty, a procedure to reduce pressure from glaucoma. Optometrists are still banned under the new law from doing cataract surgery, radial keratotomy surgery and selling prescription drugs.
The law also requires the state Board of Optometry to establish credentialing requirements for a license to administer or perform these new procedures. It also requires each optometrist who meets the requirements for certification of authorized laser procedures to report to the board regarding the outcome of the procedures and to also report to the state Board of Health.
Metro on 02/29/2020