On April 13, U.S. District Court Judge James Moody, a Clinton appointee, denied the state’s motion to dismiss Liberty Initiative Fund v Thurston, e.d., 4:21cv-460. The lawsuit challenges Arkansas laws that make initiative petitioning difficult. Specifically, the law bans out-of-state circulators for initiatives; bans paying per-signature; and has a county distribution requirement. There are also some laws that put other burdens on the process, such as requiring every circulator to constantly tell the state where he or she lives.

There will be a trial next year. The state had tried to get the entire lawsuit dismissed, partly because Arkansas is in the Eighth Circuit, and in 1999 the Eighth Circuit upheld North Dakota’s ban on out-of-state circulators and paying per-signature. But as Judge Moody noted, the plaintiffs in the old North Dakota case had not presented much evidence, and thus that old case doesn’t control the outcome of this current Arkansas case.