H. Baker Kurrus

Summary

In an original action under Amendment 7, the Supreme Court of Arkansas granted petitioner Kurrus's challenge to proposed Amendment 4, holding that its popular name and ballot title were insufficient because they were misleading by amplification and omission and failed to convey the measure's sweeping restructuring of state and local revenue-raising. The court further held, rejecting a ripeness objection, that it could decide pre-election whether the measure was 'clearly contrary to law,' and concluded that the amendment's immediate abolition of sales and use taxes on used goods—without any substituted revenue source—would impair the City of Brinkley sales-tax bonds in violation of the Contract Clauses of the Arkansas and United States Constitutions. It enjoined the Secretary of State from placing the measure on the November 7, 2000 ballot and, alternatively, ordered that any votes cast on it not be counted or certified. Justice Robert L. Brown concurred in the ballot-title insufficiency holding but dissented on the impairment issue as unripe and advisory; Justices Imber and Smith dissented, contending the ballot title fairly reflected the amendment and that the substantive constitutional question was not yet justiciable.