Arkansas and the Nation — Do We Have a Constitution?
Well, pig soooie y’all, doncha just love Little Miss Gub’ner Sarah and her special skills at getting her way? She decided she wanted a plop a prison down in Franklin County where people are outnumbered by rabbits and deer, so by god she’s gonna have it, by hook or by crook! Methods so far include secret purchase of land and not taking ‘NO!” for an answer. When questioned, her typical non-answer ensued:
- Dietz noted that local elected officials have expressed frustration about being kept in the dark about the new prison. “Was this just strictly a state deal, so there were not any local officials involved in it leading up to it?” he asked the governor. Sanders dodged the question, saying it was “no secret” her administration was focused on public safety. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/10/31/franklin-county-selected-as-home-of-new-3k-bed-state-prison
No matter what the locals want, Miss Sarah is gonna ram this through. But the legislative committee tasked with approving funding said “NO!”
- A bill to appropriate up to $750 million for a new Franklin County prison failed in the Arkansas State Senate for the fifth time on Tuesday. 21 voted for the bill on Tuesday, the highest number yet. 9 voted against, and 5 were marked as present. 27 yes votes were needed, as a three-fourths supermajority is required for an appropriations bill to pass. https://www.4029tv.com/article/franklin-county-funding-senate-fails-fifth/64422978
Still ramming, the GOP Gov’ness continued to ignore the will of the people, something she apparently learned at the knee of Mr. Trump, for whom she spent two years lying as his press secretary. Currently, as of May 16, 2025, she (and the Department of Corrections following her orders) have taken the next step, apparently under the belief that sooner or later she’ll successfully run over local (and state) concerns:
- Franklin County, AR (KATV) — The State Board of Corrections tonight selected builders for a controversial prison project in Franklin County. In a special meeting tonight the board selected Nabholz Construction, a prominent Conway-based construction company, and J.E. Dunn Construction Group, based in Kansas City to partner on the project. They took that step despite the legislature’s unwillingness during the recent session to approve a $750 million request to fund the project. Still the board is armed with $75 million that had previously been appropriated for prison construction – and they’re using it to move the process forward. [By now the estimated cost is $850 million. Stay tuned for further cost escalations.]
This fits right in with the operational mindset of the GOP. In Arkansas, that has meant stifling the voice of the people despite the state constitution’s protection of the right to petition, as described in Article 5, Section 1:
- The first power reserved by the people is the initiative. Eight per cent of the legal voters may propose any law and ten per cent may propose a constitutional amendment by initiative petition and every such petition shall include the full text of the measure so proposed. Initiative petitions for state-wide measures shall be filed with the Secretary of State not less than four months before the election at which they are to be voted upon; provided, that at least thirty days before the aforementioned filing, the proposed measure shall have been published once, at the expense of the petitioners, in some paper of general circulation.
Since Sanders took office, her handpicked attorney general and legislative minions have made every effort to hamstring the petition process, concluding the 2025 legislative session with the following:
- Act 153 clarifies that the certification of ballot titles for initiatives, referendums and constitutional amendments as well as the signatures collected for those measures would only be valid for the next general election.
- Act 154 expands the attorney general’s existing authority to reject a proposal if it conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes and prevents the sponsor of a measure from submitting more than one conflicting petition simultaneously.
- Act 218 requires signature gatherers, known as canvassers, to inform potential signers that petition fraud is a criminal offense.
- Act 240 requires canvassers to request a photo ID from potential signers.
- Act 241 requires canvassers to file a “true affidavit” with the secretary of state, the executive branch office that oversees elections, certifying they complied with the Arkansas Constitution and state laws related to canvassing, perjury, forgery and fraudulent practices in the procurement of petition signatures. Signatures submitted without the affidavit would not be counted.
- Act 273 disqualifies signatures collected by canvassers if the secretary of state finds “by a preponderance of evidence” that they violated state law collecting the signatures.
- Act 274 requires potential signers to read a petition’s ballot title or have it read to them; failure to ensure this would result in a misdemeanor charge against the canvasser.
- Act 453 requires canvassers who are paid to collect signatures to be permanent residents of Arkansas. A sponsor of a ballot measure would be fined $2,500 per paid canvasser hired who does not meet this requirement.
This deliberate effort to block, restrict, hinder, impede, delay, inhibit, obstruct, undermine, and otherwise derail the efforts of Arkansas citizens to collect sufficient signatures with which to place a proposed measure before voters is a direct assault on citizens’ rights as clearly stated in the constitution. This most likely is an aftershock of the successful 2016 medical cannabis petition effort, the outcome of 17 years of citizen efforts. The likelihood of citizen efforts to further legalize cannabis, protect women’s healthcare rights, and other non-GOP ideas has driven this outrageous conglomeration of legislative foment and the governor’s veto of legislation that would allow drive-through delivery of legal medical cannabis to qualified patients from licensed outlets.
- “This legislation would expand access to usable marijuana, therefore I am vetoing this legislation,” Sanders stated.
Never mind that a more informed point of view about marijuana would greatly reduce the need for new prison space… **
This is authoritarian thinking, apparently well learned from Trump and other GOP operatives (Stephen Miller springs to mind) in how to circumvent not only the letter of the law as written in the U.S. Constitution, but also the intent. Apparently, the Founding Fathers didn’t know what they meant to say when they wrote “…no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Also, the Founders also apparently failed to designate skin color when they wrote “that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is . . . a citizen of the United States.” And so forth.
As things whittle down to the bone with these Republican yahoos, We the People are either going to have to settle for a king in the White House, or rise up. It gives some hope that over 200 lawsuits against Trump administration efforts have been filed. But, as repeatedly noted in the histories of democracy, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
**Possession of 1 ounce (28 grams) or more with two prior marijuana convictions is a Class D felony, carrying a penalty of up to 6 years in prison and a $6,000 fine. A total of 4,976 arrests for marijuana were reported for 2023, the last year available for such data. Huckabee is on record for opposing expansion of the medical marijuana program and legalization of recreational marijuana.