JONESBORO -- Members of the Arkansas Bar Association met with Jonesboro attorneys Thursday and pitched a proposed constitutional amendment that, if adopted, would mean that state Supreme Court justices would be appointed rather than elected.
It's the second of five meetings across the state for members to talk up the proposal.
The bar association held its first such meeting Nov. 30 in Pine Bluff. A similar meeting was held Thursday night in El Dorado, and meetings are scheduled for Monday in Fayetteville and Thursday in Little Rock.
Under the proposed amendment, the governor, after reviewing candidates chosen by a selection commission, would start appointing justices in 2019 to nonrenewable 14-year terms. Currently, justices are elected statewide to eight-year terms and can be re-elected.
The idea originated after the bar association's house of delegates created a task force in June 2015 to study how to maintain a fair and impartial judiciary, said bar association member Brant Perkins, a Jonesboro attorney.
"There were concerns over the past several years" about how campaign funds were raised and the perceptions of improper influences of justice candidates, Perkins said.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published a series of articles in January detailing how the firms of six class-action lawyers formed a large group that donated to justices' campaigns.
"We call it the 'Arkansas Solution,'" said Glenn Hoggard, a bar association member and an attorney in Conway who helped draft the proposed constitutional amendment. "There is no need for candidates to raise campaign funds or tailor their decisions to get reappointed to their next term."
Under the proposal, a nine-member judicial nominating commission would be formed to accept applications, interview candidates and nominate three people for each vacancy on the Supreme Court. The commission would suggest the top three candidates to the governor and he would appoint one.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he supports an appointment system, Perkins said.
Three commission members would be chosen by the bar association, and two members would be chosen by the governor and the Supreme Court. The state speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore would each select one member for the commission.
At least five members would be attorneys, Perkins said.
"We want to ensure public confidence," Perkins said. "You can regulate your own profession."
The appointed justices would serve only one 14-year term each on the court.
Denise Hoggard, president of the Arkansas Bar Association, said justices on the state's high court serve an average of 15 years before being defeated in re-election bids or retiring.
She said the 14-year term shouldn't affect judicial members' retirements. Justices receive full retirement benefits after serving the courts for 20 years.
Denise Hoggard said most candidates for Supreme Court positions would have enough previous experience serving as circuit or appeals court judges, before being considered for high court positions, to meet the 20-year retirement threshold.
All justices now serving on the court and the justice elected in 2018 will complete their full, elected terms of office, Denise Hoggard said. The first appointed terms would begin in 2020. Justices would be appointed to staggered terms so that only one term will end every two years, she said.
Twenty-two other states appoint justices to their Supreme Courts. New Jersey's procedure follows how the federal government appoints justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rhode Island makes lifetime appointments to its Supreme Court, and Virginia and South Carolina appoint judges at all levels -- "from Supreme Court to traffic judges," Glenn Hoggard said.
Bar association members did not cite any specific candidates or campaign donations during Thursday's meeting. In previous meetings, the bar association's task force drafting the legislation noted the "attack ads" in the past three Arkansas Supreme Court races.
"We want to protect justices from the politicization of their profession," Denise Hoggard said. "They are at the pinnacle of their careers, and they need to focus only on the law."
She said since Supreme Court races are statewide, voters often don't know the candidates as well as they know local candidates who seek district or circuit judge positions in their regions.
"The candidates will be free from any political and financial implements," Glenn Hoggard said.
He said the public forums are being held to inform the public about the proposal.
The forum next Thursday at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock will be shown live over the Internet.
"If we take the vote away from the citizens, we need to ensure the process is as transparent as possible," he said. "We want to assure a fair and impartial court."
He said opinions on the proposal have varied. Those attending Jonesboro's forum seemed receptive to the idea. A majority of the attorneys who went to the Pine Bluff forum opposed the plan, he said.
A draft of the proposed amendment will go before the bar association Dec. 16 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law.
State Desk on 12/09/2016