Arkansas Governor Pushes For State’s First Supreme Court Conservative Majority

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, on April 29, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has decided her appointee for the state Supreme Court justice—a move she claims will ensure the first conservative majority in the state’s history.

“Today, I appointed former prosecutor and U.S. attorney Cody Hiland to the Arkansas Supreme Court—marking the first time the Court will have a conservative majority. Cody brings decades of legal experience to the job—and I am confident he will serve our state well,” Sanders said in a July 3 tweet. If Hiland’s seat is confirmed by the GOP-controlled state legislature, he will succeed Justice Robin Wynne, a Democrat, who died last month at the age of 70 years. Hiland will hold the post until 2025 when a newly elected justice will take over the office.

Hiland was, until recently, chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party. He resigned from the party chairmanship on Monday before being appointed as the justice of the state Supreme Court. Hiland has worked on Sanders’s campaign for governor and was nominated as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas by former President Donald Trump in 2017.

Hiland’s appointment will result in all three branches of state government—the legislative, judiciary, and executive—having a conservative majority. This makes it easier for Sanders to push through her policies for Arkansas.

Democratic Party of Arkansas Chair Grant Tennille criticized Hiland’s appointment, saying that Sanders is “abusing her power” to appoint justices.

“This ridiculous appointment and her repeated attacks on judges in Arkansas confirm Governor Sanders considers only a compliant judiciary as legitimate,” he said, according to a July 3 news release.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called Hiland’s appointment “an outstanding selection” in a July 3 tweet while stating that he is someone who is “fair, impartial, and will apply the law without favor.”

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, said in a tweet that “Cody’s experience as a U.S. Attorney and many years of both public service and private practice will serve him well on the Arkansas Supreme Court. He is an outstanding appointment.”

Governor’s Stance

Sanders has been promoting a strong conservative agenda since assuming the Governor’s post in January this year.

One top priority that Sanders has pointed to for this year’s legislative session is an education overhaul bill. A provision in the bill places restrictions on the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation prior to the 5th grade.

Critics have opposed the move, insisting that it marginalizes those in the LGBT community. In May, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright issued a temporary restraining order against implementing the bill as part of a lawsuit challenging it. The Arkansas Supreme Court lifted the temporary restraining order in June.

In March, Sanders signed into law a bill mandating that students in the state’s public and charter schools use bathrooms that match their sex.

The bill defines sex as the “physical condition of being male or female based on genetics and physiology” and directs schools to rely on a student’s original birth certificate to identify the person’s sex. It makes provisions for reasonable accommodations. Schools that violate the law will be subject to fines.

At the time, Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, told Reuters that the schools are “no place for the radical left’s woke agenda” and that “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

In March, Sanders also signed the Monument to Unborn Children Display Act, which authorized the construction of a monument on the State Capitol to honor an estimated quarter of million babies aborted during the Roe v. Wade era between 1973 and 2022.