Exterior of the Richard Sheppard Arnold Federal Courthouse in downtown Little Rock. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)
The attorney representing a small Central Arkansas town asked a federal judge Thursday to dismiss a complaint against the town and its mayor, filed in June over a First Amendment dispute.
Rose Bud’s town council passed an ordinance June 17 limiting canvassers’ ability to collect signatures for a proposed ballot measure at an event in a public park. The ordinance would have required canvassers to rent a booth at the event, Rose Bud’s annual Summerfest, and restricted all solicitation of signatures to the rented space.
The town council repealed the ordinance on Monday, attorney Don Raney wrote in the motion to dismiss the complaint against the town and its mayor, Shawn Gorham.
For AR Kids, a ballot question committee supporting a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution’s education clause, asked U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker of the Eastern District of Arkansas to block the ordinance from going into effect on June 20, hours before Summerfest began.
Baker granted the temporary injunction that day, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the ordinance violated the right to freedom of speech and posed a threat of “irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs.
For AR Kids’ proposed constitutional amendment would have required private schools that receive state funds to be held to the same standards as public schools, in response to the new school voucher program created by the LEARNS Act of 2023. The proposal also sought to establish universal pre-K, quality special education, after school and summer programming, and assistance for families who earn up to 200% of the federal poverty line.
The measure did not receive enough support to qualify for the November ballot, and For AR Kids is now working to put the measure before voters in 2026.
Baker’s injunction lasted 14 days, ending July 4, the day before the deadline to submit signatures for proposed ballot measures to the Secretary of State. For AR Kids notified Baker on June 27 that it did not intend to ask for an extension of the injunction, according to Thursday’s motion to dismiss.
The expiration of the restraining order and the repeal of the ordinance merit dismissing the case, Raney wrote.
Attorney John Williams of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas represented For AR Kids.
A 2023 law increased from 15 to 50 the minimum number of counties in which ballot measures must garner a certain amount of signatures. The law is being challenged in Pulaski County Circuit Court.