Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday appointed three special justices to hear an Arkansas Supreme Court case that will decide who ultimately decides a pending challenge to the state's ban on gay marriages.
Hutchinson said in a statement that he had appointed attorney Brett Watson of Searcy, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Betty Dickey of Heber Springs and Circuit Judge Shawn Womack of Mountain Home to take the places of Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Hannah, Justice Rhonda Wood and Justice Paul Danielson after their recusals from CV-15-227.
That case was created earlier this month to settle which justices should decide on the challenge to the gay-marriage ban.
At issue is whether special justice Robert McCorkindale or Wood should be among the seven to rule on the case. McCorkindale was appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe last year and heard arguments on the case in November after Justice Cliff Hoofman recused from the case. But the state's high court didn't issue an opinion on the gay-marriage case before the year ended and Wood joined the court, taking Hoofman's place, in the new term.
The attorney general's office subsequently asked for new arguments, citing the changed makeup of the court.
Wood recused from CV-15-227 because its outcome will determine if she serves on the broader gay-marriage case. Hannah and Danielson, meanwhile, suggested the case was an effort to delay making a decision.
Hannah wrote that members of the court had "created out of whole cloth an issue to delay the disposition" of the case while Danielson wrote that "a majority of this court has manufactured a case where no case or controversy exists."
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
Document set
Gay marriage in Arkansas
- Marriage-license lawsuit order
- Opinion/concurrence on justices in gay-marriage case
- Maples motion to dismiss new case
- Leslie Rutledge brief on behalf of state
- Wagoner amended motion
- Chief Justice Jim Hannah recusal letter
- Justice Rhonda Wood recusal letter
- Justice Paul Danielson recusal
- Plaintiffs' response to request for second oral arguments
- Plaintiffs' motion for lifting of stay
- Legislative roll call — Motion to suspend rules
- Interim resolution in support of Amendment 83
- Arkansas Supreme Court stays judge's gay-marriage ruling pending appeal
- Plaintiffs respond to state's request for stay
- McDaniel again asks Supreme Court for stay of gay-marriage ruling
- Judge Piazza May 15 final order on gay marriage bans
- Order denying defendants' motion for immediate stay
- Gay-marriage case plaintiffs' motion for clarification of judgment
- Piazza final order on gay marriage nunc pro tunc
- Piazza notice to attorneys of clarified order
- Court declines stay of gay-marriage ruling
- Piazza strikes down Arkansas' same-sex marriage ban