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 Attorney General reject David Couch's revised initiative and referendum amendment for a second time in April 2025?
Couch's second submission fixed two issues from the first rejection (Opinion 2025-018) but introduced new ones. The revision narrowed the AG's certification standard from 'not misleading' to only 'acc…
Why was the proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment to overhaul the initiative and referendum process rejected by the Attorney General in March 2025?
AG Tim Griffin rejected the proposed popular name and ballot title for a constitutional amendment titled 'An Amendment to Amend the Initiative and Referendum Process.' The proposal had two material am…
What changes did the Arkansas Attorney General make to the proposed ballot title for the 2024 amendment that would have repealed the Pope County casino license and required local voter approval for new casinos?
The AG substituted and certified a revised popular name and ballot title for an initiated constitutional amendment that would have repealed the Pope County casino license under Amendment 100 and requi…
How does the Arkansas Attorney General review the ballot title and popular name of an initiated constitutional amendment, and what changes did the AG make to the 'Arkansas Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2024' before certifying it?
The Arkansas AG substituted and certified a revised popular name and ballot title for an initiated constitutional amendment proposing to expand Arkansas's medical marijuana program. Key changes: repla…
Can the AG certify a ballot title when the proposed initiated act is written as a narrative explanation rather than as legislation?
Rejected. The revised text included an enacting clause but used it before a narrative description and partial statute quotations, leaving the AG unable to determine what was actually being enacted. Sp…
What does the Arkansas AG look for when reviewing a popular name and ballot title for a citizen-initiated act?
Rejected. The submitted ballot title was identical to the popular name and made no attempt to summarize the measure's text. The proposed measure also lacked the constitutionally required enacting clau…
Did the Arkansas AG approve the ballot title for an initiated act exempting feminine hygiene products and diapers from sales tax?
Approved with substitution. The popular name 'An Act to Exempt Feminine Hygiene Products and Diapers from Sales and Use Tax' was certified as submitted. The AG substituted a more suitable ballot title…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject a proposed ballot title for an initiated act exempting feminine hygiene products from sales tax?
Rejected. The text of the proposed initiated act was ambiguous about whether Arkansas would remain in compliance with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, a multi-state compact requiring unifo…
What does it take to get a popular name and ballot title certified for an Arkansas statewide referendum, and why was the LEARNS Act referendum draft rejected?
Rejected. The popular name and ballot title for the LEARNS Act referendum failed because the draft did not tell voters that a 'for' vote approves the act and an 'against' vote rejects it. That structu…
How does the Arkansas Attorney General decide whether to certify the popular name and ballot title of a proposed citizens redistricting amendment?
The AG certified the popular name and ballot title for a proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment that would create a seven-member citizens redistricting commission appointed by legislative leaders,…
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 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 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…
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 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…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's 2018 recreational-marijuana amendment ballot title?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined to certify Mary Berry's proposed 'Arkansas Recreational Marijuana Amendment of 2018' because the expungement provision in Section 8 was ambiguous and the proposal said n…
Why did the Arkansas AG refuse to certify Larry Morris's 2017 recreational-marijuana ballot title?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined to certify the popular name and ballot title for Larry Morris's proposed 'Arkansas Decriminalization of Recreational Marijuana Amendment' because the underlying proposal…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's second 2017 recreational-marijuana ballot title?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined certification of Mary Berry's second 2017 recreational-marijuana proposal. The revised version retained the same two ambiguities the AG had flagged two weeks earlier (Op…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Barry Emigh's Fairplay Holdings casino-gambling amendment?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined Barry Emigh's casino amendment, his seventh submission of essentially the same proposal. Two threshold problems prevented review: the proposal did not specify how the 'F…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Larry Morris's second 2017 recreational-marijuana ballot title?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined certification of Larry Morris's second 2017 recreational-marijuana proposal. Four ambiguities prevented certification: inconsistent use of 'business,' 'person,' and 'dri…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's first 2017 recreational-marijuana ballot title?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined certification of Mary Berry's first 2017 recreational-marijuana proposal. Section 4(f)(3) and Section 5(c) created ambiguity about whether design and packaging rules app…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Larry Morris's first 2017 recreational-marijuana ballot title?
Rejected. AG Rutledge declined to certify the popular name and ballot title for Larry Morris's first 2017 recreational-marijuana amendment because of seven distinct ambiguities in the proposal text, r…
What happens when the Arkansas AG receives a proposed ballot initiative with ambiguous language?
The Arkansas AG rejected the popular name and ballot title submitted by Barry Emigh for a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize the contracting and subcontracting of gambling along with the s…
Was the revised Berry cannabis amendment ballot title sufficient for certification in 2016?
No. The AG rejected the popular name and ballot title for a second time, citing nine ambiguities in the underlying measure. The revised draft fixed some issues but introduced new ones, including uncle…
Was the Arkansas Cannabis Amendment's revised popular name and ballot title sufficient for ballot certification in 2016?
No. The AG rejected the proposed popular name and ballot title because additions in the underlying measure created ambiguities the AG could not resolve and the AG therefore could not draft a fair summ…
Did the Arkansas AG certify the ballot title for the 2016 Arkansas Term Limits Amendment sponsored by Skip Cook?
Yes. The AG concluded that the popular name and ballot title for the proposed Arkansas Term Limits Amendment were sufficient under the standards set by the Arkansas Supreme Court and certified them as…
How does the Arkansas Attorney General certify a ballot title for a citizen-initiated casino amendment?
AG Leslie Rutledge certified the popular name as submitted and substituted a revised ballot title to fix minor grammatical and typographical errors. The opinion summarizes the legal standards she appl…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject the 2016 Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment's popular name and ballot title?
The AG rejected the proposed popular name and ballot title because the underlying constitutional amendment had so many internal ambiguities that no ballot title could honestly summarize it for voters.…
Did the Arkansas AG approve the 2016 ballot proposal to change county offices, JPs, and constables from two-year to four-year terms?
Yes, with grammatical changes. The AG certified a revised popular name and ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment that would lengthen terms of office for County Judge, JP, Sheriff, Colle…
Did the Arkansas AG certify the Little Red Hen Committee's proposed constitutional amendment to limit legislatively-referred amendments to one per session?
Yes, but only after rewriting the popular name and ballot title. The AG substituted 'Reducing Constitutional Amendments Proposed by the General Assembly Under Article 19, Section 22 of the Arkansas Co…
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…
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…
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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.