Federal judge halts Griffen’s high court suit
He was barred by justices from death penalty cases
A federal judge on Monday granted the Arkansas Supreme Court’s request to temporarily halt proceedings in Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s lawsuit against them.
Griffen sued the court and its seven justices on Oct. 5, accusing them of violating his rights in issuing a directive April 17, 2017, disqualifying him from presiding over death-penalty cases or any cases related to the state’s method of execution. The directive was issued three days after Griffen, who is also a Baptist minister, attended a prayer vigil outside the Governor’s Mansion in opposition to executions.
Earlier the day of the vigil, Griffen blocked the use of an execution drug in response to a lawsuit by the drug’s manufacturer, effectively halting the state’s efforts to begin a series of executions.
In December, the justices filed a motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit, and on March 22, the justices asked U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. to stay discovery — the process of gathering information in preparation for trial — until after Moody rules on the dismissal request.
The justices argued, “This
action seeks federal court intervention in the internal workings of a state judiciary and strikes at the supervisory authority of a state’s highest court over its lower courts. It asserts a constitutionally prohibited federal jurisdiction over an arm of the State of Arkansas and, if permitted, would open the door to harassing litigation of judges in the discharge of their judicial responsibilities.”
They argued that in their motions to dismiss, they raised “serious issues with the legal sufficiency of [Griffen’s] claims,” and asserted that “no reason exists to embark on the difficult, resource-draining, and disruptive path” that the discovery process “will unquestionably take.”
Griffen opposed the request in a filing last week, arguing that it has now been a year since he was barred from hearing “the most significant cases a judge can decide,” and in that time, he has been “wrongfully excluded from assignment to at least a dozen capital cases filed in the Pulaski County Circuit Court, including one filed just two weeks ago.”
His attorney said the court’s directive “is causing continuing harm not only to Judge Griffen, but also to the people of Arkansas who elected him to hear the full range of cases under the Circuit Court’s jurisdiction.”
Griffen’s response reiterated that the “unprecedented, permanent bar” was being “mischaracterized” by attorneys for the justices as a “runof-the-mill ‘recusal’ order. But … This was no recusal order. There was no recusal motion. The Supreme Court’s Order No. 17-155 … was not entered in any proceeding pending before Judge Griffen, and not requested by any litigant.” He said the court issued the ban on its own, “separate and apart” from the case he ruled on the day of the prayer vigil, even though the justices “pretextually cite [that case] to try to justify their unconstitutional order.”
In response to the justices’ complaint that Griffen is seeking a federal court’s intervention in the state judiciary’s internal workings, Griffen said the justices “claim they have carte blanche to administer the state courts and suggest the United States Constitution is not a constraint on that power.” But if that were true, he argued, they would be able to “bar a judge who spoke out against racism from hearing any cases involving race discrimination.”
He also argued that “the Arkansas Supreme Court and its justices cannot act contrary to the U.S. Constitution,” and that a tentative trial date in the federal case — Jan. 28, 2019 — “is less than 10 months away. Unless an order on the motions to dismiss is forthcoming in the next several weeks, the Court will not be able to keep this case on track to be adjudicated in a timely fashion if discovery is stayed, while the people of Arkansas will continue to be deprived of their choice to hear the most important cases a judge can hear.”
Griffen attached a report of all capital murder cases filed in the 6th Judicial District, which includes Pulaski and Perry counties, since the Supreme Court’s directive was put in place. He said he is the only circuit judge in the district who hasn’t been assigned to hear one of the cases, and without the directive, he would have been assigned to at least one of them.
On Monday, Moody didn’t issue a written order explaining his ruling granting the Supreme Court’s motion to temporarily stay discovery. He also didn’t indicate when a ruling might come on the justices’ motion to dismiss the case. The court’s electronic docket simply contained a text entry saying the justices’ request had been granted.
Moody himself was a Pulaski County Circuit judge before President Barack Obama appointed him to his federal judgeship in 2014. Anti-nepotism rules in the federal judiciary forced Moody’s father, James M. Moody Sr., to retire from the federal bench after 18 years when the younger Moody was appointed.