Court Opinion

ID: 9662097
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:59:27.302824+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:18.360262
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. With some temerity, recognizing that consistency is sometimes said to be the hobgoblin of small minds, I suggest we should remember what we did two months ago. In The Unborn Child Amendment Comm. v. Ward, 318 Ark. 165, 883 S.W.2d 817 (1994), we postponed interpretation of Amendment 68 because a United States District Court had declared it “void,” sort of, and that decision was on appeal. As was noted in the dissenting opinion, the state court injunction we were asked to review was not necessarily inconsistent with that of the federal court. Today we barge ahead and interpret Amendment 68 because “neither party filed a motion for stay.” Are we saying the federal court decision has somehow lost its vitality because the parties in last month’s case asked us for a stay but the ones now before us have not? We should have answered the questions asked about Amendment 68 last month. Having declined to do so then, however, we should decline to do so now. I respectfully dissent.