Two judges issue contradictory orders on Arkansas election ad

LITTLE ROCK—Arkansas judges issued contradictory orders Friday on efforts to halt a conservative group's attack ad against a state Supreme Court justice, with one judge ordering several stations to stop airing the spot and another judge allowing other stations to run it.

The conflicting decisions over the Judicial Crisis Network's ad targeting Justice Courtney Goodson come days before voters head to the polls in an election that's been dominated by a flood of TV ads and mailers for the high court race. The rulings have pitted opponents of so-called "dark money" groups that have turned Arkansas' court campaigns into some of the nation's roughest against First Amendment advocates who say halting the ads is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

A judge ordered several Little Rock area stations to stop airing the Judicial Crisis Network's ad targeting targeting Goodson through the state's non-partisan judicial election on Tuesday. Hours later, another judge lifted an earlier order blocking the ad from running in northwest Arkansas and said he wouldn't issue a new injunction to prevent them.

Goodson, who is running against Appeals Court Judge Kenneth Hixson and Department of Human Services Chief Counsel David Sterling i, sued to block the ads and has called them defamatory. The ad criticizes Goodson over gifts from donors and a pay raise the court requested last year. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza, who blocked the ads Friday, said the spots could pose irreparable harm on the justice, calling
them misleading.

Read more: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2018/may/19/two-judges-issue-contradictory-orders-arkansas-election-ad/726857/