Conservatives in Arkansas have snagged a state Supreme Court majority for the first time ever after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) appointed the GOP chairman to fill a vacancy, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
Huckabee appointed Cody Hiland to fill the spot after state Supreme Court Justice Robin Wynne’s death. Hiland resigned as chair on Monday, a position he'd held since December.
Wynne was a lifelong Democrat and the member of a political dynasty. He died June 21, aged 70.
“I know it will have the same effect on our state as it has had on our country," Sanders said, likening her vision for the state’s top court to the nation’s Supreme Court’s 6-3 majority.
Wynne in November won reelection against Chris Carnahan, a former executive director of the state Republican Party.
Republicans had targeted Wynne in an effort to move the ostensibly nonpartisan position to the right.
“Judicial races are technically nonpartisan in Arkansas,” Bolts reported in May 2022.
“But conservatives pushed to oust Baker and Wynne this year and lock in right-wing dominance on the court with challengers who have close GOP ties. Many supreme courts are seeing similar tussles for power this year.”
Sanders clashed with the state Supreme Court in recent months according to the report, which notes that the “appointment came three days after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Hebert Wright ruled that Sanders’ signature education law — the LEARNS Act — won’t take effect until Aug. 1, delaying implementation of most of the law which had been in place since early March. The lawsuit, filed May 8, aims to delay when the LEARNS Act can take effect. Attorney General Tim Griffin filed an appeal of the judge’s ruling Monday with the state Supreme Court.”
The Democrat-Gazette in a separate report notes this Wynne’s father, Thomas Wynne II, “served as a B-17 bombardier on 28 missions over Europe, gained international fame as the judge who set bail for the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ron Wood along with their companion Freddy Kessler when they were arrested in Fordyce, July 5, 1975.”
