Split Rulings On Attack Ads In Supreme Court Election

Judicial Crisis Network, a right-wing judicial advocacy organization that uses money from anonymous sources to fund attacks against liberal court nominees and candidates, is embroiled in litigation prior to a May 22nd election for the Arkansas Supreme Court. A sitting Arkansas Supreme Court Justice, Courtney Goodson, is running for re-election. When the group began running attack ads against her she filed suits against three broadcasters in different parts of the state, calling the ads defamatory. After conflicting rulings and several recusals due to conflicts of interest, voters in Northwest Arkansas will be able to see the ads aired on TV in the final days leading up to the election, while voters in Little Rock – the state’s largest media market – will not. Judges in the cases decried the fact that the Judicial Crisis Network, based in Washington, D.C., does not disclose its donors. “There’s something obscene about what’s going on with the type of judicial advertising that’s going on right now,” he said. One of the TV stations named in the suit voluntarily stopped running the ads, and another broadcaster, Cox Media, was dismissed from the case after it agreed to pull the ads from the air.