Jones Case Lifted Wright, Little Rock Court to Prominence

Chief Judge Susan Webber Wright of U.S. District Court in Little Rock is one of the best-known federal judges in the country, and her court boasts public access technology almost unparalleled among the nation’s federal courts — all because of a woman from Lonoke.

When Paula Corbin Jones filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in 1994, it led to no less than the impeachment and eventual acquittal of the nation’s chief executive. But since the case was filed in Little Rock and assigned to Wright, the hurricane of public and media attention carried the judge and the court along with it.

While Wright threw out Jones’ complaint in 1998 before it ever came to trial, ruling that Jones had presented no basis for her lawsuit, the case cast a continuing shadow on Wright’s career and court.

The federal courthouse on West Capitol Avenue groaned under the relentless attention the trial attracted, straining resources, Wright said.

“We had personnel who spent most of their days making copies” of court documents for the press, she said. “We were not equipped to handle that kind of traffic. It really does strain the resources of the court.”

Though the U.S. Marshal Service provided additional protective personnel, the court was on its own in dealing with the clerical avalanche, Wright said.

Salvation took the form of portable document files posted on the Internet. The court, Wright said, was one of the first in the nation to provide public access to images of court documents free via the Internet. For a time, the court’s Internet site offered a link to the Jones case right on the startup page.

“It helped us immeasurably,” she said, as the electronic access dramatically reduced in-person traffic.

Though the case is over, Wright is still in demand as a public speaker.

Wright, who reported no business trips from 1993 to 1997, reported seven in 2000.