Title: Jewell v. Miller County Election Commission

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

Daniel J. JEWELL and Bryan Rodgers v. MILLER
COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION, et al.; Gary
Bailey, et al., Intervenors

95-1322                                            ___ S.W.2d ___

                    Supreme Court of Arkansas
               Opinion delivered February 3, 1997


Appeal & error -- abstract flagrantly deficient -- judgment affirmed. -- 
     Where it was confronted with a six-volume record of some 1500
     pages plus exhibits and was provided with a nine-page abstract
     that left out the most basic information and was otherwise
     most difficult to decipher, the supreme court held that
     appellants' abstract did not comply with Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 4-2;
     deeming it flagrantly deficient, the court affirmed the
     judgment.


     Appeal from Miller Circuit Court; John Lineberger, Circuit
Judge on Assignment; affirmed.
     Law Firm of Stephen T. Arnold, by: Stephen T. Arnold, for
appellants.
     Thomas H. Johnson, for appellees.
     Atchley, Russell, Waldrop, & Hlavinka, L.L.P., by: J. Dennis
Chambers, for appellees-intervenors.

     David Newbern, Justice.
     This appeal has arisen from the tortured recent history of
city government in Texarkana.  The issue presented is whether the
General Assembly's attempt to remedy the situation by passage of
Act 8 of the First Extraordinary Session of 1995 violates the
constitutional prohibition against special or local legislation. 
Ark. Const. amend. 14.  The Circuit Court held Act 8 was not
unconstitutional.  We affirm the decision because the appellants'
abstract is flagrantly deficient.
     Texarkana has a city-manager form of government.  Prior to and
during the six-year duration of the dispute over the manner of
electing the City's directors, four directors were elected from
discrete districts, and three were elected at large.  That system
was held to violate the federal Voting Rights Act because it
deprived African-American citizens of an equal opportunity to
participate in the political process.  Williams v. City of
Texarkana,