On March 11, the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with a lower state court, and ruled that the lower court was correct last year when it enjoined a state law that makes it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot. Thurston v Safe Surgery Arkansas, cv-20-562. Here is the 25-page opinion.

The law says that before an initiative may begin to circulate, the sponsors must obtain from the Arkansas State Police a criminal record search for every paid circulator who is expected to work on the initiative. The lower court found a technical flaw in the law. The law says that the criminal search shall include both state and federal crimes. However, the State Police have no ability to obtain that information for federal crimes.

The Secretary of State argued that the lower state court should just have stricken reference to federal crimes, in order to solve the problem, but the State Supreme Court said the court had no power to do that. The Supreme Court notes that there is no severability clause in the law.