Arkansas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Arkansas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Why did the Arkansas AG reject the Arkansas Cannabis Amendment ballot title submitted by John Wesley Hall in 2018?
AG Rutledge rejected John Wesley Hall's 2018 popular name and ballot title for the proposed Arkansas Cannabis Amendment, citing three threshold defects: inadequate disclosure of continued federal ille…
Why did the Arkansas AG re-certify the 2018 Oaklawn/Southland casino-gaming amendment one day after the original certification?
AG Rutledge recertified the 2018 Oaklawn/Southland casino-gaming amendment one day after first certifying it (in Op. 2018-068). The recertification corrected a typographical error ('Raing' should have…
Why did the Arkansas AG certify the 2018 four-LLC casino-gaming amendment proposed by Randall Bynum?
AG Rutledge certified the popular name and ballot title for a competing 2018 casino-gaming amendment that would have authorized four casinos, one each in Benton, Boone, Miller, and Pulaski counties, o…
Why did the Arkansas AG certify the 2018 casino-gaming amendment proposed by Alex Gray for Crittenden, Garland, Pope, and Jefferson counties?
AG Rutledge certified the popular name and ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment requiring the Arkansas Racing Commission to issue four casino licenses: one to Southland in Crittenden C…
Why did the Arkansas AG certify David Couch's 2018 Arkansas Citizens' Redistricting Commission Amendment ballot title?
AG Rutledge certified the popular name and ballot title for David Couch's proposed 'Arkansas Citizens' Redistricting Commission Amendment.' The amendment would have repealed the existing Board of Appo…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Robert Reed's 2018 'Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment' ballot title?
AG Rutledge rejected Robert Reed's proposed Hemp and Cannabis Amendment ballot title because it failed to adequately explain how the proposed amendment would change current law (specifically the exist…
Why did the Arkansas AG certify the 2018 minimum-wage ballot title submitted by David Couch?
AG Rutledge certified, after the Arkansas Supreme Court's intervening decision in *Couch v. Rutledge*, the popular name and ballot title for an initiated act raising the Arkansas state minimum wage fr…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2018 Driving Arkansas Forward casino and highway funding ballot title?
Rejected. The AG identified multiple ambiguities in the proposed Arkansas Casino Gaming and Highway Funding Amendment of 2018 that prevented writing a fair ballot title. The word 'casino' was used inc…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2018 recreational marijuana ballot title for the True Grass committee?
Rejected. The AG rejected the Arkansas True Grass committee's recreational marijuana ballot title, finding that the proposed amendment's regulatory scheme was too convoluted to be summarized in an int…
Why was the December 2017 True Grass cannabis ballot title rejected?
Rejected. The AG concluded that the True Grass committee's December 2017 recreational cannabis amendment had a regulatory scheme too convoluted to be summarized in an intelligent, impartial, and hones…
Why was the Arkansas Cannabis Adult Use and Regulation Amendment of 2020 ballot title rejected?
Rejected. The AG identified two flaws in attorney John W. Hall's submission of the 'Arkansas Cannabis Adult Use and Regulation Amendment of 2020.' First, the ballot title failed to acknowledge that ma…
Why was the November 2017 Arkansas True Grass cannabis ballot title rejected by the AG?
Rejected. The AG found two threshold problems in the True Grass committee's November 2017 recreational cannabis amendment. First, the proposed ballot title essentially copied verbatim the lengthy 'unl…
Why was the 2017 Natural Resource Cannabis Amendment rejected by the Arkansas AG?
Rejected. The AG identified two fundamental defects in Clair Danner's Natural Resource Cannabis Amendment that made any further ballot-title review impossible. First, the proposed measure was 36 pages…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the third 'Arkansas Recreational Marijuana Amendment' submission from True Grass BQC in September 2017?
The proposal's two new defined terms, 'carry on' and 'personal effects,' were defined in ways that did not make sense or that introduced new ambiguity. 'Carry on' meant possession 'on one's body and p…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Ed Frizzell's 'Multi-Member Districts Amendment' ballot title in September 2017?
The ballot title contradicted the proposal's text. The title said the new apportionment would 'provide the expression of geographical, community, and political interests' in addition to equal populati…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the September 2017 'Arkansas Recreational Marijuana Amendment' draft from True Grass BQC?
The proposal contained five fundamental defects: it offered an open-ended list of alternative popular names (including one to be chosen by the AG); it used confusing noun-and-verb 'acts to cultivate' …
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2017 'Arkansas Recreational Marijuana Amendment' ballot title submitted by Mary L. Berry?
Three fundamental ambiguities, the AG said: when the amendment would actually take effect, whether age limits applied to people working for licensed businesses, and what 'considered legally served' me…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's July 21, 2017 cannabis amendment without going through the usual ambiguity analysis?
Because Berry's submission was substantively identical to two recent rejections (her own Opinion 2017-076 and Larry Morris's Opinion 2017-081, both from the same True Grass committee), the AG declined…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Larry Morris's July 2017 'Arkansas Recreational Marijuana Amendment of 2018' draft from True Grass?
Four defects: the effective date was contradictory ('effective November 7, 2018' but also 'shall be made lawful' by some unidentified third party); the Section 4 list of legalized 'acts' used confusin…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Scott Trotter's 2017 multi-issue constitutional amendment about jury damages, campaign-finance disclosure, and legislative powers?
Seven defects, the AG said. The popular name was misleading (juries don't have an absolute right to set damages; Arkansas already requires election disclosures). The ballot title used technical terms …
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's third 2017 cannabis legalization amendment, the one with effective dates of November 7, 2018 and April 19, 2019?
Three ambiguities in the measure's text. Section 2 said marijuana activities would be 'regulated and made lawful' starting November 7, 2018, but Section 9 said the state had until April 19, 2019 to is…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's June 2017 cannabis amendment titled 'The Arkansas Adult Recreation of Marijuana Amendment'?
Because the proposal's Section 1 baked the phrase 'Recreation of Marijuana' into the amendment's official short title. The phrase is grammatically and conceptually ambiguous: it could read as 'recreat…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Barry Emigh's 2017 casino-by-municipal-ballot proposal that would have given gambling licenses to a small group of named BQC members?
The popular name was misleading because it suggested gambling could be legalized 'simply by way of a municipal ballot measure.' The 785-word ballot title still failed to convey the sweeping changes th…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Ed Frizzell's 2017 'Proportional Voting Amendment' that would have shrunk the legislature into seven multi-member senate districts and 21 multi-member house districts drawn by latitude lines?
Three reasons. The popular name 'Proportional Voting' is a technical term that means different things in different electoral contexts and would mislead voters. The ballot title described the new distr…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject True Grass's 2017 recreational marijuana amendment with the prison-release and expungement provisions?
Because Section 8 of the proposal had a fundamental ambiguity. Subsection (a) and subsection (b) could be read to apply different rules about whether prisoners with non-marijuana convictions also qual…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Larry Froelich's 2017 ballot title for an initiated act that would have made Act 570 of 2011's reduced drug sentences retroactive?
Because the popular name and ballot title referenced 'Acts 2011, No. 570' without describing the punishment changes that act made, leaving voters unable to assess what the proposal would do. The submi…
Did the Arkansas Attorney General certify the 2016 proposed constitutional amendment limiting medical-malpractice attorney contingency fees and non-economic damages?
Yes, with one modification. The AG concluded that the ballot title fairly summarized the proposal but that the submitted popular name ('The Lawsuit Reform Amendment of 2016: An Amendment to Limit Atto…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2016 proposed constitutional amendment on lobbyist gifts, political action committees, independent expenditures, and campaign contribution limits?
The AG rejected the popular name and ballot title on two grounds. First, the title failed to summarize several substantive sections, especially the new article 19, section 32 defining 'covered transfe…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2016 proposed 'Arkansas Cannabis Restoration Amendment' ballot title?
The AG rejected the proposed ballot title because the text of the underlying amendment contained too many ambiguities for a fair summary to be drafted. Specific defects included: stating that certain …
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject Mary L. Berry's revised April 2016 Arkansas Cannabis Amendment?
The AG rejected the popular name and ballot title because the revised proposal kept some old ambiguities and introduced new ones. Section 2's 'shall be lawful' language for cannabis activities was sti…
Did the Arkansas Attorney General certify the 2016 proposed constitutional amendment capping non-economic and punitive damages in medical malpractice cases?
Yes, with one substitution. The AG concluded that the proposed ballot title was an adequate summary but that the submitted popular name was partisan and would be challenged on that basis. The AG subst…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject Don Lane's revised March 2016 Cannabis Restoration Amendment?
The AG rejected the popular name and ballot title because the proposal's text retained or created multiple ambiguities the AG could not draft around. Section 2's 'shall be lawful' language conflicted …
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject David Couch's 2016 proposed 'On Premise Local Option Election Alcohol Act'?
The AG rejected the ballot title because the proposal still had ambiguities the AG could not draft around. The proposed act would let the ABC Director issue permits for festivals, hotels, restaurants,…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2016 'Arkansas Cannabis Amendment' submitted by Mary L. Berry?
The AG rejected the ballot title because the proposal's text contained ambiguities the AG could not draft around. Section 3's expansive 'marijuana paraphernalia' definition (which included anything us…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject a citizen-proposed marijuana legalization amendment in 2014?
The AG rejected the second submission of the Arkansas Hemp and Marijuana Amendment because the text contained ambiguities that made an honest ballot title impossible. The licensing-cost language, the …
What did the Arkansas AG say about the first marijuana legalization ballot title submitted in 2014?
Rejected. The text defined hemp as cannabis with less than 1% THC and marijuana as cannabis with greater than 1% THC, leaving cannabis with exactly 1% THC unclassified. The AG also flagged inconsisten…
Did the revised 2013 Arkansas same-sex marriage amendment fix its ballot title problem?
No, not fully. Jennifer Pierce revised her earlier proposal (Opinion 2013-122) to address a gap the AG had flagged in Amendment 83, adding a line that 'Arkansas law shall recognize all marriages valid…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the ballot measure stripping limited liability from corporations that spend on elections?
The AG rejected it on several grounds. First, the submitted ballot title ended in an ellipsis and skipped whole sections, so it did not summarize the measure and he could not rewrite it 'out of whole …
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the Marriage Amendment ballot title over its effect on Amendment 83?
The AG rejected it. Jennifer Pierce's proposed 'Arkansas Marriage Amendment' would have defined marriage as a union of two persons regardless of gender, and its ballot title said the measure repealed …
Why couldn't a 2013 Arkansas ballot measure allowing same-sex marriage get its ballot title certified?
The AG rejected it. He explained he only checks whether a ballot title fairly summarizes a measure, not whether same-sex marriage is good policy. He could neither certify nor fix this title because th…
Did the Arkansas Attorney General approve the ballot title for the 2013 medical marijuana initiative?
Mostly yes. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel found the popular name, 'The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act,' sufficient as submitted, but concluded the sponsor's proposed ballot title needed work. Rather…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 'Ban Prohibition of Cannabis' ballot title?
The AG rejected it. He explained that under A.C.A. § 7-9-107 he only checks whether a ballot title fairly summarizes a measure, not whether the measure is a good idea. He could not certify this one be…
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Attorney general opinions in Arkansas are written by the Arkansas Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.