John Thurston

Summary

The court reversed and dismissed the circuit court's judgment invalidating four Arkansas election statutes. It held that the statutes were facially neutral election regulations, did not implicate a fundamental right requiring strict scrutiny, and were not clearly incompatible with the Arkansas Constitution. The court separately concluded that the statutes did not violate equal protection, the free-and-equal-elections provision, voter-qualification provisions, the voter-registration amendment, or free-speech and free-assembly protections.