Attorney general asks state Supreme Court to dismiss lawsuit over abortion amendment (UPDATED)
From the Arkansas Times
arktimes.com/…
Note that the(UPDATED) is their update. Not mine. And a lot of the value in the article is in their update.
The story including the update is long and detailed. I’m just going to make one short quotation. Griffen is the Attorney General of Arkansas and he is responding to the lawsuit filed by Arkansans For Limited Government requesting the judge to require the Secretary Of State to count the signatures.
Griffin’s claims do not appear to hold up to scrutiny or comply with the statute. In an update coming soon, we’ll argue that the attorney general engages in highly twisted logic, stringing together snippets of text across multiple statutes to arrive at his desired conclusion in a way that seems to undercut the purpose, structure and procedures of the plain language in the law. This acrobatic reading leaves multiple sections of the law clearly gratuitous, and possibly even contradictory — sections passed under the very same law Griffin references. It seemingly cannot be reconciled with the chronology of the petition review process described in the law. The Court may prefer to side with Griffin and stop the count for ideological reasons, but it’s difficult to see how they can justify his claims under the law.
Reading on through the update it’s pretty clear what’s happening here. Attorney General Griffen has strung together a bunch of gobbledygook to make a spurious claim hoping that the Arkansas Supreme Court votes on ideological grounds rather than carefully reading the law.
And that might be what happens. The fact that the Arkansas Times is reporting in detail on Griffen’s gobbledygook might help convince the Arkansas Supreme Court to prefer a close and accurate reading of the law.
We shall see.
The article also said,
It will now be up to the court to decide whether the count must continue — giving the petition new life, at least for now — or whether this is the end of the line for the petitioners.
So I’m not sure that there will be a court date with arguments. It sounds like the Arkansas Supreme Court can make a decision based on the filings.
Is there anyone reading who knows the procedure for a case like this?
Action!
Join the email list at arliberty.org. This will keep you abreast of the latest news from AFLG.
And donate
Donation page here, arliberty.org/… Merch page here, shop.arliberty.org
Even though they won their lawsuit in Montana there’s still a fight ahead to get the amendment on the ballot. You didn’t think the Republicans were going to quit their voter nullification just because a judge told them to? (rhetorical question)
Donate to the Montana effort.
mtreprorights.org
Rec this diary for exposure. I’m following this story daily and I can’t wait to report that the Secretary Of State’s office folds and they are counting the signatures.
If you live in Arkansas and you haven’t registered to vote please do that now. If you don’t know how to register go to the AFLG website at arliberty.org. They will help you get registered to vote. We will need you to vote on the amendment after the signatures are counted and it gets on the ballot. (Speaking optimistically)
Here’s a good link for voter registration nationwide. If you aren’t registered register now. If you think you’re registered, check. Don’t wait until election day to find out you’ve been purged.
www.vote.org
Please post your news on this national issue in the comments.
Please add more action links and strategies in the comments.
There’s a reason why Republicans are doing this. If the amendments are put on the ballot they will pass. Republicans know this but they don’t care about voter’s rights any more than they care about abortion rights.
Count the signatures!
Count the signatures!
Thanks
