Goodson sues D.C. ad buyer

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson filed suit Thursday against a Washington, D.C., group that has purchased attack ads targeting her as well as other recent candidates for the state’s courts.

The lawsuit aims to stop the Republican State Leadership Committee from airing television ads and distributing mailers accusing the justice of “scandalous” behavior, claims that Goodson and a nonprofit judicial watchdog had called misleading.

It’s the second legal action taken by Goodson against her detractors in her current re-election campaign.

Before the first round of voting in the spring, Goodson filed lawsuits against several local television stations that had been airing similar ads purchased by another Washington group, the Judicial Crisis Network.

The suits were partially successful, as a judge ordered the ads taken off the air in Pulaski County, while another judge allowed the ads to continue running in Northwest Arkansas.

Thursday’s lawsuit was different, in that it was filed against the purchaser of the ads, not the media companies airing them.

“We’re going to cut off the snake’s head,” said Goodson’s attorney, Lauren Hoover.

David James, a spokesman for the Republican State Leadership Committee, said Thursday that the group had not been served with Goodson’s complaint, though he added in a statement that “truth is an absolute defense.” Together, the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Judicial Crisis Network have spent millions of dollars attacking Goodson this year.

The Judicial Crisis Network also ran ads during Goodson’s unsuccessful 2016 run for chief justice.

Those ads depicted her as an “insider” for gifts she accepted from campaign donors, including a trip to Italy.

Both the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Judicial Crisis Network have brought up the issue in their latest ads and included a new line of attack: that Goodson subsequently requested a pay raise as a member of the court.

As reported by this newspaper in 2013, Goodson disclosed the gifts in her public financial interest reports.

Many came from her then-boyfriend and current husband, attorney John Goodson, while the vacation came from Goodson’s friend and attorney W.H. Taylor of Fayetteville.