In a stunning move, the Arkansas Supreme Court has blocked a lower court’s ruling, and some are saying in retribution for one judge’s words.
The Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday afternoon blocked a lower court’s ruling last week allowing same-sex couples to have their names on their adopted children’s birth certificates. Arkansas Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge had contested the ruling and won the stay.
The Court did allow the three couples who filed the lawsuit and won the right to have the birth certificates amended as they wished, but halted the state’s Dept. of Health’s Vital Statistics Bureau from amending or granting any others.
The state Supreme Court’s decision claims “the best course of action is to preserve the status quo with regard to the statutory provisions while we consider the circuit court’s ruling,†Reuters reports.
That’s what’s being reported nationally, but the local Arkansas media is reporting a far more involved story.
First, the Arkansas Times reported last week that while the couples who sued the state were able to obtain proper birth certificates, “a couple of other couples” were “turned away.” Among those refused are Jennifer and Tracee Gardner-Glaze (photo).
Next, the Arkansas Times’ Max Brantley suggests that there may be some animus toward the lower court judge, Tim Fox, from the state Supreme Court.
In the lower court’s ruling last week, Judge Fox admonished the Arkansas Supreme Court for having taken 14 months to rule on same-sex marriage:
Unnecessary delays in the issuance of opinions, as in the recent case … do not promote societal confidence in judicial decisions
Such delays provide a breeding ground for speculation of political intrigue or other illegitimate reasons for the delay — whether true or not. The default during appeal should be in favor of affording all United States citizens their full and complete constitutional protections and rights during the appeal, not the continued deprivation of those rights
Brantley adds, “Two sitting justices, Paul Danielson and Chief Justice Jim Hannah, said other members of the court had delayed the case for political reasons, though a regulatory agency concluded no ethical rules had been broken.”
And there’s an even more stunning portion the national media isn’t reporting.
“A full backgrounding of this requires noting that [Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Karen] Baker defeated Fox in a race for the court in 2010 that had ugly overtones,” Brantley writes. “A former clerk and campaigner for Baker made a court filing in an unrelated divorce case in Lonoke County in which the man accused Fox of having an affair with his wife. The attorney who made the filing said it should be a campaign issue.”
Brantley notes that “politics WERE at the forefront of the handling of the marriage case.”
For now, the adoption case in the hands of the Arkansas Supreme Court, but this could possibly wind up in federal court.
Stay tuned.
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