Opinion ID: 1636299
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutionality of Ark. Sup.Ct. R. 5-2(d) (2002)

Text: The appellant next contends that Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 5-2(d) (2002), which provides that unpublished opinions by the Arkansas Court of Appeals shall not be cited in any argument in any court, is unconstitutional. [1] Specifically, he relies upon Anastasoff v. United States, 223 F.3d 898 (8th Cir.2000), vacated as moot, 235 F.3d 1054 (2000), and apparently asserts that the rule, like its federal analogue that was invalidated in Anastasoff , allows this Court to ignore its own precedent, and therefore, exceed its judicial power. The State contends that because the appellant does not suffer any injury as a result of his inability to rely on unpublished Court of Appeal's opinions here, he lacks standing to challenge the constitutionality of Rule 5-2(d) and that this Court should, therefore, affirm. We agree. A litigant has standing to challenge the constitutionality of a court rule if the rule is unconstitutional as applied to that particular litigant. See, e.g., Ross v. State, 347 Ark. 334, 64 S.W.3d 272 (2002). The general rule is that one must have suffered injury or belong to a class that is prejudiced in order to have standing to challenge the validity of a rule. Id. Stated differently, litigants must show that the questioned rule has a prejudicial impact on them. Id. Under these standards, the appellant in this case lacks standing to challenge the constitutionality of Rule 5-2(d). In Anastasoff , the Eighth Circuit held that its rule regarding the precedential value of unpublished opinions was unconstitutional because it allowed that court to ignore its own precedent, and therefore, exceed the judicial power that it had been granted under Article III of the United States Constitution. See Anastasoff, 223 F.3d at 903, 905. In contrast to the appellant in Anastasoff , however, the appellant here does not seek to rely on an unpublished decision of this Court, which, if published, would bind the Court and control the outcome of the appeal. Rather, he wants to rely on opinions of the Arkansas Court of Appeals, which, even if published, do not have any binding effect on this Court. Cf. Amendment 80 § 5 (providing that Court of Appeals is subject to the general superintending control of the Supreme Court); cf. also, Box v. State, 348 Ark. 116, 71 S.W.3d 552 (2002) (noting that Court of Appeals lacks authority to overrule Supreme Court precedents). Therefore, as appellant does not belong to the class of persons who wish to rely on decisions that would otherwise be binding and that would be injured by the application of Rule 5-2(d), we hold that he does not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of this Rule.