The news about Arkansas' highest court gets curiouser and curiouser. Now our well-meaning governor has had to start appointing new members of the state's Supreme Court because a couple of the old and more respected ones have accused their colleagues of obstructing the judicial process. Which is one way to describe how a majority of the court has tied it in knots. Which is why Asa Hutchinson, Esq. and Governor, has been obliged to appoint three special members of the high court.
One of the Guv's picks turns out to be a former state legislator--Shawn Womack--who crusaded against what he called the Gay Agenda before he became the circuit judge he is now. Should that disqualify him from judging a case about the legality of homosexual marriages in Arkansas?
Not necessarily. Consider the example of one Jim Johnson, aka Justice Jim, a rabblerousing seg back in the Furious Fifties who was elected to the state's Supreme Court, replacing one of its better justices. Folks feared the worst when he joined the court, and had reason to. Yet once he donned those judicial robes, Jim Johnson seems to have decided every case that came before him with a fine impartiality--regardless of race or anything else irrelevant to simply doing justice. Some judges are elevated by their position. Unlike, say, the Hon./Rev. Wendell Griffen, who can't seem to decide whether he's a judge, preacher, demagogue-in-general, or all of the above.
The governor also appointed two other justices to weigh this case. One is Her Honor Betty Dickey, a former chief justice of the court who remains a model of integrity. The governor couldn't have chosen better.
Our high court may be in disarray, but Asa Hutchinson's judgment remains solid.
Editorial on 04/18/2015