The Supremes II

Carlton Jones for the bench

You think national politics has twists and turns? Take this particular race for Position 2 on the state Supreme Court:

If the current justice running for the seat wins, she gets the seat. If she loses, she stays on the Supreme Court.

Huh?

That’s right, according to retirement rules for the courts, it benefits Justice Courtney Hudson to move from her current seat on Position 3 to the open seat on Position 2. According to the news story earlier this month: “When Hudson announced her intentions to pursue the Position 2 seat, she was three years into her second Position 3 term. Hudson, 52, said she was interested in the Position 2 seat because it would allow her to serve a few more years on the court before reaching 70, the age when circuit and higher judges are generally required to leave the bench or forfeit retirement benefits. She’ll remain the Position 3 justice if she does not win.”

So We the People are voting on her retirement benefits? We wonder how many voters will find that unseemly. Especially when she’ll stay right where she is on the state’s highest court if they vote for Carlton Jones for the open seat, which we encourage.

Carlton Jones is a circuit court judge in good standing, and a former prosecutor. Importantly, he’s from the Texarkana area, and the Supreme Court could use more jurists who come from south Arkansas, if we may say so. (Surely voters from south Arkansas might say so.) And the court might could use more former prosecutors, too.

The man was a deputy prosecutor for two decades before he was elected to prosecute cases in Lafayette and Miller counties. He was elected to the bench in 2014. That sounds like a lot of prosecutor/judicial experience. He also seems to have the kind of judicial temperament that comes in handy for a position of this caliber.

Carlton Jones might be at his best when he’s talking about private and individual “wins”—such as the time he was caught at a funeral by somebody he once prosecuted. Only to have the person thank him for putting her behind bars when it would do her some good. If you wonder how and why a lawyer would want to work for a government salary for a couple-three decades, it’s stories like that which might best explain.

“Whether successful in this endeavor, or not, my opponent remains on the court,” he told the paper. “Her candidacy adds nothing to the composition of the court—it only adds to her retirement benefits. I would bring a new perspective to the bench.” For example:

“Judges of the Arkansas Supreme Court review, in many instances, decisions of circuit court judges. As a circuit court judge, I have presided over many hearings and trials, and the experience obtained in these proceedings is invaluable in assisting a judge on the Supreme Court to understand the pressures in the decision-making of the trial court judges.”

There are many reasons to vote for Carlton Jones for the Supreme Court this cycle. Only one of them is this: His opponent would stay on the bench, too. So everybody wins.

Including Arkansas.