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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Did the Arkansas Attorney General certify the popular name and ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment that would abolish the office of constable?
Yes, with substituted language. Attorney General Tim Griffin substituted a more concise popular name ('The Constable Amendment of 2026') and a revised ballot title ('This is a proposed amendment to th…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the popular name and ballot title for the proposed 'Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment,' and what would the sponsors need to fix to get certification?
The AG rejected the ballot title for two reasons. One: Act 602 of 2025 requires ballot titles to be at an eighth-grade reading level on the Flesch-Kincaid scale, and the resubmitted title scored 9.3 (…
What does the Arkansas Attorney General have to consider when deciding whether to certify a ballot title for an initiated constitutional amendment, and why was the original 'Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment' ballot title rejected on its first submission?
The AG checks (1) whether the popular name accurately and impartially identifies the proposal, (2) whether the ballot title summarizes the amendment fairly, briefly, and without partisan tilt or techn…
What was the Arkansas Attorney General's substituted and certified ballot title for David Couch's 'An Amendment Concerning Constitutional Amendments, Initiated Acts, and Referendums,' and what does that ballot title actually say?
After three rejections (Opinions 2025-018, 2025-021, 2025-026), the AG accepted Couch's fourth submission, made minor changes to ensure the ballot title clearly explained the proposal's purpose while …
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the third version of David Couch's proposed amendment ('An Amendment Concerning Constitutional Amendments, Initiated Acts and Referendum'), and what did the sponsor need to fix?
The two prior substantive issues were resolved, but the General Assembly had since passed Act 602 of 2025, which became effective April 14, 2025, and bars certification of any ballot title above eight…
Did the Arkansas AG approve the ballot title for 'The Arkansas Educational Rights Amendment of 2026,' which would require non-public schools that take state funds (or state tax credits) to meet the same academic and accreditation standards as public schools, and expand state education obligations?
Yes. The AG certified both the popular name and ballot title as submitted, since they were identical to a previous proposal he had already substituted and certified in Op. 2024-079. The AG cautioned t…
Did the Arkansas AG approve a ballot measure to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly, or risk to the mother's life or physical health?
No. The Attorney General rejected the proposed ballot title for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment. The defect was technical but fatal: the definition of 'physical health' described it as the presence of…
Why did Arkansas reject the 2020 recreational marijuana ballot title?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The measure was virtually identical to one already rejected in Op. 2018-119, and the same threshold defects in the proposal itself made it impossible to draft a …
Why did Arkansas reject the 2018 'Marijuana As Alcohol' constitutional amendment ballot title?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The amendment proposed regulating marijuana 'as an alcoholic beverage,' but federally licensed alcohol producers cannot also distribute marijuana under federal l…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2018 Arkansas Regulation of Marijuana Amendment ballot title?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The proposal was substantially the same recreational-marijuana amendment the AG had already rejected in Opinion 2018-100 for being a convoluted statewide decrimi…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the Natural Resource Cannabis Amendment ballot title in 2018?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The proposal was substantially the same measure the AG had already rejected in November 2017, with added language on banking and depository institutions that mad…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2018 'Arkansas Cannabis Hemp and Recreational Marijuana Amendment' ballot title?
The AG rejected the entire submission at the threshold. The proposal was the same measure the AG had already rejected in Opinion 2017-006 as ambiguous and misleading. Recycling language previously ide…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2018 'Arkansas Marijuana Amendment 2020' ballot title that proposed adult-use legalization with a regulatory licensing scheme?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The ballot title was generic and uninformative, leaning on words like 'regulation' and 'licensing' without describing the actual legal effects. The underlying pr…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2018 'Right to Grow Cannabis Amendment' ballot title?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The popular name 'Right to Grow' was misleading because the amendment also covered possession. The ballot title was inadequate. And the text's reach (which purpo…
Why did the Arkansas Attorney General reject the 2018 Arkansas Marijuana Legalization Amendment ballot title that would have earmarked tax revenue for K-12 schools?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The popular name added 'for School Funding' to lend partisan coloring; the ballot title was wholly inadequate to summarize the proposal's substantive changes; an…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Alex Gray's 2018 ballot title for a four-county casino constitutional amendment?
The AG found the proposal misleading because it called itself an authorization of four casinos, but actually awarded two licenses automatically to Southland and Oaklawn with no obligation to operate, …
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2018 ballot title for the proposed Hemp and Cannabis constitutional amendment?
The AG rejected the title because the proposal said it would 'regulate' cannabis without explaining how that interacted with Arkansas's existing Medical Marijuana Amendment (Amendment 98), so voters c…
Did the Arkansas AG approve the 2018 ballot title for a constitutional amendment authorizing four casinos in Benton, Boone, Miller, and Pulaski Counties?
No. AG Leslie Rutledge rejected the popular name and ballot title in May 2018, finding the proposal had fundamental defects in how it described the locations, the franchise mechanism, and the changes …
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2018 ballot title for the Citizens' Redistricting Commission constitutional amendment?
AG Rutledge rejected the proposal because key terms (such as a commissioner's required 'commitment' to honesty and impartiality, and what counts as 'substantial neglect of duty') were too vague and va…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2018 cannabis constitutional amendment that would have repealed and replaced Amendment 98?
AG Rutledge rejected the proposal because the ballot title did not adequately summarize the proposal's substance, including how it would repeal the existing Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment 98 and…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2018 Arkansas True Grass recreational marijuana ballot title?
The AG rejected it for fundamental ambiguities in the proposal text. The AG also reminded the Arkansas True Grass committee that drafting and accurately summarizing the measure are the sponsor's respo…
What happens when an Arkansas ballot-title sponsor resubmits virtually the same proposal the AG already rejected?
The AG rejects it again. Robert Reed's 2018 Hemp and Cannabis Amendment was nearly identical to a 2016 proposal the AG had already flagged with serious ambiguities (Op. 2016-110). The AG will not cons…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the first April 2018 draft of the Citizens' Redistricting Commission constitutional amendment?
AG Rutledge rejected the first draft for ambiguities, particularly around the undefined term 'immediate family member' (used as an eligibility disqualifier) and the undefined term 'Arkansas public off…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the first April 2018 draft of the four-county casino constitutional amendment?
AG Rutledge rejected this April 16, 2018 first draft because key provisions were ambiguous: it did not explain how the franchise holders' obligations or penalties for non-racing would actually work, a…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Randall Bynum's first April 2018 four-county casino constitutional amendment?
AG Rutledge rejected the April 10, 2018 first draft for fundamental problems and ambiguities in the text of the proposal. This was a competing 4-county proposal (Benton, Boone, Miller, Pulaski) differ…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the very first March 2018 draft of the four-county casino constitutional amendment?
AG Rutledge rejected this March 29, 2018 draft for ambiguities about the franchise holders' obligations and the relationship between casino licensing and racing operations, the same kinds of issues th…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the Arkansas True Grass recreational marijuana ballot title in 2017?
The AG rejected the entire submission. The proposed measure had a Section 10 listing 13 categories of unlawful activity that was completely absent from the ballot title, and the text contained undefin…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the second Arkansas Blue Grass cannabis ballot title submission in October 2017?
The AG rejected the entire submission because the proposed amendment retained the same kinds of textual ambiguities flagged in earlier opinions, which made an accurate ballot title impossible to draft…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the Arkansas True Grass recreational marijuana ballot title in October 2017?
The AG rejected the submission because the proposed amendment's defined terms were internally inconsistent (carry/carrying on/personal effect) and its plant-cultivation rules contained multiple irreco…
Did the AG certify the popular name and ballot title for the Arkansas Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Amendment?
No. The AG rejected the proposal because the modifiers 'industrial' (hemp) and 'medical' (cannabis) introduced ambiguity that the underlying text did not resolve. The text proposed to legalize the cul…
Did the Arkansas AG certify Robert Reed's proposed constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis cultivation, sale, and possession statewide?
No. The AG rejected the popular name and ballot title for the proposed Arkansas Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Amendment because the measure's text was internally ambiguous. The labels 'industri…
Did the Arkansas AG certify a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol statewide and repeal Arkansas's local-option election framework?
Yes. The AG certified the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment as submitted, popular name and ballot title both. The amendment would have made alcohol manufacture, sale, distribution, and transportat…
Do Arkansas legislators' pre-2014 years of service count toward the new 16-year cap under Amendment 94?
Yes, as to service after January 1, 1993. Amendment 94 left untouched the prospective-application clause from Amendment 73, so the 1993 trigger date carried over. Two-year Senate terms drawn after rea…
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 …
Could Arkansas's 2014 SJR 7 amendment let the legislature veto Game and Fish Commission or Highway Commission rules?
The AG declined to interpret SJR 7 before the November 2014 vote, consistent with longstanding office policy and Arkansas's bar on declaratory judgments about unenacted measures. He noted the open leg…
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…
Why did Arkansas reject a cannabis-legalization ballot title in 2014?
AG Dustin McDaniel rejected the proposed Arkansas Cannabis Amendment because the text contained ambiguities he could not resolve in a ballot title: the opening verb was in the imperative mood, the mea…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 'Ban the Prohibition of Cannabis' ballot title?
AG Dustin McDaniel rejected the popular name 'Ban the Prohibition of Cannabis' and its ballot title because the underlying measure failed to say it was a constitutional amendment, contained internally…
Why did the Arkansas AG keep rejecting League of Women Voters cannabis ballot titles in 2013-2014?
AG Dustin McDaniel rejected Lt. Col. Marjorie LeClair's 'Ban Prohibition of Cannabis' constitutional amendment ballot title for the ninth time, citing ongoing ambiguities in the measure's text. Each p…
Why won't the Arkansas AG approve a constitutional amendment requiring voter approval for any tax, fine, or fee increase?
Because the proposal as written was too ambiguous. It didn't define which 'taxes, fines, or fees' it covered (Verizon Arena ticket prices? Improvement district assessments?), which voters had to appro…
What does it take to get a proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment legalizing cannabis through the AG's ballot title certification?
Not just a clear stance. The AG rejected a 2014 cannabis amendment because the proposal cited 'the Arkansas Gross Receipts Tax Laws of 1941,' a chapter that does not exist under that name; the actual …
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 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…
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.