2015 state law protects actions, judge says
Griffen says AG, justices violated religious rights
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen stood on the steps of the state Capitol on Friday and took aim at lawmakers and the Arkansas Supreme Court, accusing them of breaking the state’s 2015 religious freedom law by scrutinizing his public displays of faith.
Backed by a cadre of supporters who appeared at a rally on his behalf, Griffen told reporters that he planned to take his case to court if sanctions against him are not lifted.
The circuit judge has been stripped of his power to hear death penalty cases since he appeared at a death-penalty protest at the
Governor’s Mansion in April, the same day he issued an order that temporarily halted the state’s efforts to begin a series of executions.
Griffen later said his decision to lie prostrate on a cot at that April rally — which fell on Good Friday — was meant to portray the crucifixion of Jesus.
On Friday, donning his Panama hat like he did at the rally (though he took it off when he lay on the cot), Griffen said his actions fell under the protection of the 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The law says the government cannot “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion,” unless it is “the least restrictive means of furthering” a compelling government interest.
Griffen is under investigation for his conduct by the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, and some Republican lawmakers have floated the idea of impeachment.
That’s in addition to the Supreme Court justices removing Griffen from cases involving the death penalty.
“It has already happened. The violation [of the religious act] has already happened,” Griffen told reporters Friday.
In response to the complaints filed against him with the judicial discipline commission, Griffen filed his own ethics complaint against the justices and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge for not offering him a hearing before delivering sanctions.
Two of the top officials at the commission later recused from the competing cases, citing potential conflicts of interest.
David Sachar, the executive director of the commission, said Friday that the staff was looking to recruit two independent attorneys and two investigators to handle the cases.
Griffen told reporters that he had not yet been contacted by the commission and has not spoken to investigators.
Griffen did not speak at the rally that preceded his talking to reporters. At the rally, supporters from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the NAACP and local Baptist churches came to his defense.
A series of more than a dozen speakers from several states — and one who said she was a missionary in Indonesia — accused lawmakers of trumpeting their own brand of Christianity while chastising others.
Rizelle Aaron, the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, read a list of other judges who had run into trouble with the law or been accused of breaking judicial rules without facing similar scrutiny from the courts or lawmakers. (One of the judges he mentioned, former District Judge Joseph Boeckmann, stepped down amid an investigation into sexual misconduct.)
“Where were you, Supreme Court? Where were you, impeachment legislators?” Aaron repeated several times.
Multiple speakers mentioned the religious freedom law, Act 975, which passed after an earlier version sparked heated debate over protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The bill was pulled and rewritten to more closely match language in federal law.
Asked Friday to comment on Griffen’s remarks, the sponsor of Act 975, state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, said in a text message that he would need to study the judge’s argument more closely to give a full response.
However, Hutchinson said the argument would appear to carry more weight under the earlier, failed version of the religious freedom law, which he voted against.