Transparency group files lawsuit against AG Griffin to qualify FOIA ballot title

Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, a group seeking to get the Freedom of Information Act into the Arkansas Constitution and working to pass an initiated act with more specifics, filed a lawsuit with the Arkansas Supreme Court against Attorney General Tim Griffin on Tuesday (Jan. 23) claiming he is refusing to certify their ballot title.

The group has submitted four different ballot titles for a proposed constitutional amendment and four different ballot titles for initiated acts related to their measure. Griffin has rejected all of them.

“The refusal to approve and certify the popular name and ballot title or failure to substitute and certify a more suitable and correct ballot titles and popular names are in violation of the duties of the Attorney General found in Ark. Code Ann. §7-9-107. Ark. Code Ann. §7-9-107(c) sets forth the circumstances under which the Attorney General can refuse to certify a ballot title,” ACT’s lawsuit said.

“None of the Attorney General’s opinions state that the ballot title or the issue is misleading or designed in an improper manner,” it added.

You can read the lawsuit here.

The group’s complaint centers primarily on Griffin’s refusal to approve the ballot title. Griffin has made reference of errors or trouble spots in several rejections to language within the proposed amendments and acts. ACT claims he is only authorized to reject or substitute the ballot title, not the body of their proposals.

“Pursuant to A.R.C.P. 65, the Court should enter a mandatory injunction compelling the Attorney General to either approve and certify the ballot titles submitted by the Petitioner or to substitute and certify more suitable and correct ballot titles for the submitted amendments within 3 days. It is the Petitioner’s choice as to which proposal it wishes to pursue and not the Attorney General,” the lawsuit said.

“The Petitioner requests that the Court enter a mandatory injunction compelling the Attorney General to either approve and certify the ballot titles submitted by the Petitioner or to substitute and certify a more suitable and correct ballot titles within 3 days, that the mandatory injunction be issued immediately and, for all other just and proper relief to which he may be entitled,” it reads.

“I am confident in our review and analysis of ballot submissions and look forward to the Arkansas Supreme Court’s review in this case,” Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement to Talk Business & Politics.