Arkansas Governance
By 
How much of a horrible person do you have to be to get other Arkansas leaders to crack down on you? The answer in terms of the state judiciary is this bad:
Two days after being sworn in, the Arkansas Supreme Court’s new chief justice attempted to fire several employees of the state court system, which a majority of the court claimed was inappropriate, “unnecessary and unfortunate.”
Five of six associate justices — Rhonda Wood, Barbara Webb, Shawn Womack, Cody Hiland and Nicholas Bronni — issued an administrative order Friday saying Chief Justice Karen Baker did not have the authority to fire 10 Administrative Office of the Courts employees for whom she’d prepared termination letters.
Some AOC employees, including the director, cannot be terminated without approval from at least four of the Supreme Court’s seven members, the five justices stated. Other workers cannot be fired without the AOC director’s approval, which Director Marty Sullivan did not give.
Baker was sworn in Wednesday after becoming the state’s first elected female chief justice in November. Hiland and Bronni were also sworn in Wednesday as new appointees filling vacant Supreme Court positions, including Baker’s former seat.
On Thursday, Baker “confronted” Sullivan and Supreme Court Chief of Police Pete Hollingsworth “about their responses to Freedom of Information Act requests involving her” and said she was considering firing them, the administrative order states.
This woman is all class:
Baker declined her fellow justices’ requests to discuss the attempted firings, and she said she had “millions of reasons” for her actions but did not state any specific reasons, the order states.
“When asked about those employees’ families and the fact that they were scared and fearful, the Chief Justice responded by saying that it was ‘good’ for those employees to be scared,” the five justices wrote.
Some of the employees Baker tried to fire have pending human resources complaints against her “from recent incidents,” and the recipient of those complaints is Finance and Administration Director Sam Kauffman, who was among those Baker tried to fire, the order states.
The five justices concluded that Baker’s actions were “retaliatory” and issued an apology to the employees and their families. The order also said any firings on or after Wednesday “in contravention of this order are hereby rescinded, effective immediately,” and failure to comply may result in a citation for contempt of court.
There’s at least some standards in Arkansas. I guess these other judges are just RINOs though……