A proposal to end the election of Arkansas Supreme Court justices drew two lawyers and two judges to a panel discussion Thursday night in Little Rock.
The Arkansas Bar Association hosted the panel -- the last in a series held across the state -- at the University of Arkansas' Clinton School of Public Service ahead of a planned meeting of the association's Board of Delegates today to decide whether to support a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution.
The proposal was written by a Bar Association drafting task force, appointed by president Denise Hoggard this summer. The Bar Association's House of Delegates previously had adopted a policy of supporting a judicial nomination commission.
The actions by the Bar Association came after three recent state Supreme Court races drew concern over the influence of out-of-state "dark money" contributions.
Dark money refers to untraceable contributions made to support or oppose candidates for office. Only contributions made directly to candidates or political action committees must be reported in Arkansas, and dark money contributions can be used to fund third-party political ads.
"These are fronts, these are shadowy unknown entities. No one knows who is behind them," said panelist Tim Cullen, a Little Rock lawyer who lost a 2014 race for the state Supreme Court in which he was attacked by dark money ads.
Money that remains secret is not the only cause for concern, the panelists said, but also contributions made directly to campaigns.
Referring to a state law requiring donors to remain unknown to judicial candidates, Circuit Judge Mary McGowan said it is "laughable" to think cash contributors remain a secret.
"We can easily see who is in the room," during campaign events, McGowan said. "We're not supposed to know."
Not all of the panelists agreed with the idea of ending judicial elections.
Former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Robert Brown described the popular election process as imperfect, but he said the best solution would be to require all political contributions to be disclosed through a public, online database.
"We all know in the reality of elections, we have the potential in money," Brown said. "That's the bugaboo in popular elections."
Thursday's discussion drew a few dozen to listen to the debate, including lawyers, law professors and judges. Previous panel discussions hosted by the Bar Association were held in Pine Bluff, El Dorado, Jonesboro and Fayetteville.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the House and Senate leaders of legislative judicial committees have said they support nominating justices, however, there are differences between their proposals and the Bar Association's draft amendment.
The Bar Association's draft proposes a nine-member Judicial Nomination Commission, with a third of the members appointed by the Bar Association. Two commissioners would be appointed by the governor, and one each by the House speaker and Senate president pro-tempore.
The state Supreme Court also would appoint two members. The court and Bar Association appointments would have to be lawyers.
The amendment would create 14-year terms on the Supreme Court, and every two years the commission would submit three nominees to fill the spot of a departing justice. The governor would then select his pick from the commission's nominees.
Currently, Supreme Court justices run for eight-year terms in nonpartisan elections.
Metro on 12/16/2016