A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Arkansas Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen that challenges the state judicial disciplinary panel's rules.
U.S. District Judge David S. Doty dismissed the lawsuit filed against the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, its director, David Steward, and its members.
In his ruling Wednesday, Doty said Griffen hadn't demonstrated "a real and immediate threat of repeated injury nor shown any continuing present adverse effects."
The commission dropped its professional conduct complaint against Griffen last month but Griffen has kept alive a lawsuit that challenged the rules limiting what judges can say in public. The judge has said leaving the rules in place threatens free speech rights.
"Though forced to participate in the disciplinary process, Judge Griffen was never reprimanded, admonished or disciplined in any way by the commission," the ruling said. "Moreover, Judge Griffen faces no current charges nor is there any showing that the commission will pursue charges against him in the future."
Judge Doty is from Minnesota; all the federal district judges in Arkansas recused from the case.
Griffen has tangled with the commission over his public remarks since 2002. The case dropped last month was brought over remarks he made in 2005 and 2006. Issues Griffen spoke out on included the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina, minimum wage, the war in Iraq, and made comments against critics of immigrants and homosexuals.
Griffen argued that the panel has ignored a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Minnesota rule barring judicial candidates from speaking out on disputed legal or political issues.
"Further, now that (the commission) has determined that 'there is no canon that expressly prohibits a judge or judicial candidate from publicly discussing disputed political or legal issues' and that the First Amendment protects Judge Griffen's statements, the Commission cannot pursue similar charges against Judge Griffen or any other judge," Doty's order said.