Two sitting justices on the Arkansas Supreme Court are running to be the Court’s next chief justice. Justices Karen Baker and Rhonda Wood each tout their years in the court system and administrative experience in their pitch for the seat.
The seat is currently held by Chief Justice John Dan Kemp. He’s retiring after serving in the role since 2015. The chief justice oversees operation of the entire state court system.
Arkansas law says the chief justice is responsible for efficiency in the courts and has the power to require lower courts to issue reports and modify or add rules and regulations. The chief justice also retains all of the other duties of an associate justice on the high court and continues to hear cases and write opinions.
Baker and Wood beat out fellow Supreme Court Justice Barbara Webb and attorney and former Democratic state lawmaker Jay Martin in the spring primaries.
Rhonda Wood has been on the high court since 2015. Originally from Iowa, she came to Arkansas to attend Hendrix College in Conway. She graduated from Hendrix there in 1996 and afterward attended the UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law.
Early in her career, Wood operated a solo law practice in Conway. She described the work as “a little bit of everything,” providing legal advice to small businesses and helping medical clinics comply with laws. She said this showed her the real impact of the court system on small businesses. Wood then went on to practice law at a firm in Little Rock and became an assistant dean at her alma mater.
Wood entered the judicial system in 2007, when then-Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed her to a lower state court. Voters elected her to the same position in 2009.
In 2013 Wood pursued a seat on the Court of Appeals and won. She served for two years before making an unopposed bid for the Supreme Court in 2013. She ran unopposed again in 2022 for her current term which is set to end in 2030.
Wood said the high court’s top priority is to follow the law, even in cases where justices personally disagree with their decision.
“We make decisions that a lot of times we just don’t like. And that happens all the time,” Wood said. “There’s times where we make a decision and we know it’s going out the next day and we lose sleep the night before, knowing that it’s going out and knowing that we really don’t like the decision, but we also don’t–we just didn’t like the law, but that’s what the law is.”
Justice Karen Baker did not respond to multiple interview requests from Little Rock Public Radio.
Baker is from Clinton, Arkansas and graduated from Arkansas Tech University in 1983. She got her law degree from the UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law in 1987, and had a private law practice for the first eight years in her career. She also worked as a public defender in Van Buren and Searcy counties.
In 1995 Baker became a circuit judge, marking the start of her judicial career. She served for about six years before moving to the state Court of Appeals in 2001. In 2011 she began serving as an associate justice on the Supreme Court, and is now in her third term, which is scheduled to end in 2030.
Because the two candidates already hold court positions, this election will leave an empty seat on the high court for Gov. Sarah Sanders to fill. Whoever Sanders appoints will serve for the next five years. Meanwhile, the justices already work together and will continue to serve on the same court no matter who wins the chief justice seat.
The Supreme Court has been weighing in on a number of controversial matters concerning Arkansas elections recently. In several cases, Wood and Baker have ruled in opposition to one another. The most prominent example is a split ruling in August which effectively prevented an amendment to expand abortion access in the state from going on the ballot.
Wood wrote the majority opinion, saying the defendants, the sponsors of the abortion amendment, didn’t follow Arkansas law; while Baker’s dissent said Wood and the other justices interpreted the law to satisfy the respondent, Secretary of State John Thurston.
Arkansas has nonpartisan judicial elections, so neither candidate is publicly allowed to say if they support Democratic or Republican policies, or speak on issues that they might have to later rule on.
Wood said she and Baker have different personalities, but they get along and have always worked well together over the years.
“We are both in the middle of our terms so we’ll keep working together regardless of who is successful in this race.” Wood said.
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Baker pointed to her years of court experience as the reason for why she’s the most qualified to be the next chief justice. Baker has served on courts for 30 years and Wood has served for 18, and Baker has four more years of experience on the high court compared to Wood. She also told the Democrat-Gazette her opponent “lacks judgment”.
Wood said she is the most qualified candidate from an administrative standpoint, pointing to plans outlined on her campaign website as to why she wants the job.
Wood’s ideas for the court involve making the court system more accessible by holding hearings at night or virtually so people don’t have to miss work, and creating web pages for each court so people can understand the system before their hearing. She said this would help alleviate some common anxieties about the justice system.
Wood said she also wants to improve how the judiciary handles domestic violence and human trafficking cases, and reform the juvenile justice system. She said as public servants, Justices should do more than just keep up the “status quo.”
“We’re supposed to always be looking at how to improve the system,” she said, adding the court should “solve problems, not create problems.”
Wood said she’s also thinking about the future of the court. She said the Supreme Court is ready for a strategic plan next year, and she wants to introduce reforms to the current rules.
“We have not done a redo of our court rules since 1979 when they were first adopted,” Wood said. “Everything is changing and modifying, but we’re still using those rules from 1979.”
Wood said she would prioritize talking with citizens who have recently dealt with the justice system. She said she wants to ask them what issues are common, and create task forces to solve those issues.
Baker outlined some goals for the court in a forum hosted by Little Rock Public Radio, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the League of Women Voters of Pulaski County in February. In the forum, Baker said the court needs to be more transparent, and she wants to make sure Arkansas’ bar is “competent and able to serve the communities in Arkansas.” Baker went on to say the high court hasn’t done a good job of dealing with attorney’s licensures.
Voting for the next Supreme Court Chief Justice begins October 21 until November 5.
