Readers may be familiar with ongoing litigation involving the Arkansas Board of Corrections. Without getting too far into the weeds, the composition of the Board has changed, and the Board's new majority no longer wishes to make the same arguments advanced by the former majority.
One of the cases involved is on appeal. There is a trial court decision favorable to the Board, but the parties to the appeal want the Arkansas Supreme Court to reverse the trial court and remand the matter so that it may be dismissed in light of a settlement.
Here's where appellate practitioners might be interested, regardless of their views about the underlying politics.
A former Board member joined with a current Board member to seek relief from the Supreme Court. They asked to intervene to defend the trial court decision. But in the alternative, they asked the Supreme Court to appoint an attorney to defend the trial court decision on appeal, since the new Board is disinterested in doing so.
This alternative relief is based on U.S. Supreme Court practice. The notion is that when a decision on appeal is "orphaned" - that is, a party no longer wishes to defend it - the Supreme Court will appoint an attorney - "invited amici" - to defend the decision. The Court benefits from full briefing and argument provided by the appointed attorney.
It will be interesting to see how the Arkansas Supreme Court addresses this matter. I am not aware of an "invited amici" ever being appointed here, but it could have happened.
If you want to review the pleadings and keep up with this case's disposition, you can find the case on the Arkansas Judiciary website, here: https://arcourts.gov/ Search the court records tab for the docket number, CV-25-742.
And if you would like to know more about "invited amici" practice at the U.S. Supreme Court, here's a Cornell Law Review article on the topic: https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol101/iss6/3/
Enjoy - and stay tuned!
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