Then & Now: Hudson helped pave way for woman justices

In May 2010, Courtney Hudson became the first woman elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court in a contested race. Now, four of the seven justices are women. In fact, women have comprised a court majority since 2014. More women are running, and voters are electing them.

“I think that I played an important part in it, yes,” she said when asked.

Since that May 2010 election, Arkansas voters have twice given Hudson a vote of confidence. The first was in 2018 when she was reelected to Position 3. The second happened in November when she was elected to Position 2. She also received a vote of confidence when the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal named her to the Forty Under 40 class in 2009.

Hudson, who grew up in Harrison, was introduced early to the legal profession.

“When I was 6 years old, a good judge allowed my stepfather to legally adopt me,” she said. “I was given a new last name and a new family and a fresh start, and that had a very big impact on a 6-year-old little girl.

“Now at that time, I didn’t know what that meant, but I always had my eye on the justice system. I always had a regard for lawyers and judges. That definitely ended up being an inspiration for me wanting to go into the legal field and ultimately being a judge because for me, it was the courthouse, a judge symbolized offering solutions and answers for difficult situations, and I wanted to be a part of that. It had a profound, positive impact on my life.”

Hudson decided to go to law school while at the University of Arkansas. One day, she stood at a bus stop and looked across the street at the UA School of Law. At that moment, she had an “epiphany that that was the next step.”

After graduating from law school in 1997, she clerked at the Court of Appeals in Little Rock for more than eight years before moving to Fayetteville. There, she worked in private practice while raising her three young children.

When a Court of Appeals seat opened in the 2008 election, she threw her hat in the ring and was elected by Northwest Arkansas voters. Her years of being a clerk had prepared her for the job.

“I was essentially mentored by 12 appellate judges,” she said. “Being a clerk allows you to not only work for judges but also to be a student of the law.”

Things moved quickly from there. Two months into her term at the Court of Appeals, a position became available on the Arkansas Supreme Court. Hudson threw her hat into the ring again.

“I knew I wanted to one day run for the Supreme Court, and I didn’t really get to choose the timing of when there was an opening on the court,” she said. “But it was a unique opportunity, and quite frankly, I knew how to run a campaign. I knew how to win, and I decided to strike while the iron was hot.”

Hudson was 38 at the time. In addition to being the first woman elected to the Supreme Court in a contested race, she became the state’s youngest elected justice. Hudson said her youth and gender increased the challenges of getting elected because she “did not look like a judge.” Since then, she’s been elected twice more.

“I think I proved my worth on the bench,” she said. “And I think this is key: My work transcends partisan politics. Arkansans have said unequivocally that they want nonpartisan judges because partisanship should play no part in the courtroom, and I have been true to that.”

Asked about her judicial philosophy, Hudson said, “I interpret the Constitution based on what it says rather than what some people believe it ought to say. … You identify the issue. You figure out which applicable statutes or constitutional provisions that you are dealing with, and then you take an analysis that’s kind of a blender portion of the recipe where you take the facts and blend them into the statutes, the rules.”