State chief justice with 'millions of reasons' to fire court employees can't do so unilaterally, top Arkansas court says
The Arkansas Supreme Court stepped in Friday, when Chief Justice Karen Baker, the new chief justice, tried to fire nearly a dozen employees, including the director of the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts. (Photo from the Arkansas Judiciary)
The Arkansas Supreme Court stepped in Friday, when the state’s new chief justice tried to fire nearly a dozen employees, including the director of the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts.
In a Jan. 3 administrative order, the state supreme court said Chief Justice Karen Baker can’t fire the director of the administrative office without the approval of a court majority. And the chief justice can’t fire other court employees, with the exception of her law clerks and administrative assistant, absent an order from the director of the administrative office, the state supreme court said.
The Legal Profession Blog, Law360, the Arkansas Advocate (via How Appealing), 4029TV.com and KARK.com have coverage.
The Arkansas Supreme Court rescinded Baker’s termination orders, calling the situation “unnecessary and unfortunate.”
The events giving rise to the order began Jan. 2, when Baker called to her office the chief of supreme court police and the director of the administrative office. During the meeting, Baker “confronted the director and police chief about their responses to Freedom of Information Act requests involving her,” the state supreme court said, without offering specifics.
Baker indicated that she had prepared letters to fire both officials but was unsure whether she would do so, the Arkansas Supreme Court said. The next day, Baker told the police chief that he was fired and tried to fire at least 10 administrative office employees, including the office director.
A fellow justice who learned of the attempt asked to meet with Baker about her decisions, but the chief justice refused. When asked why the employees were being fired, Baker said she had “millions of reasons,” the state supreme court said.
Some of the employees have pending human resources complaints against the chief justice “for recent incidents,” the Arkansas Supreme Court said. The state supreme court’s decision did not delve into the FOIA request that appeared to prompt the attempted firings.
But a December report by Talk Business & Politics said Baker had contacted the police chief after a reporter with Arkansas Business asked about surveillance footage purporting to show her entering the administrative offices.
“There better not be footage going around,” Baker reportedly said in a voicemail to the police chief. Baker later told Talk Business & Politics that she never entered locked offices, and she did not know whether the reporter had made a FOIA request for the footage.
A separate FOIA controversy concerned a fellow justice, Justice Courtney Rae Hudson.
Baker was the only dissenter when the state supreme court tossed a lawsuit by Hudson seeking to block release of emails to Arkansas Business that had been sent to her by the then-director of the state’s attorney ethics body, the Arkansas Office of Professional Conduct.
The emails, it turned out, “mostly concern operational matters at OPC, including an employee’s request for leave, a proposal for sizable raises for OPC staff, and a disagreement over whether the $195.50 purchase of an air fryer at Sam’s Club counted as a legitimate office expense,” according to an October story by the Arkansas Advocate.
The email clash in September prompted the state supreme court majority to refer Hudson and her lawyer to ethics regulators for investigation for “flagrant breaches of confidentiality” in the suit. Baker, in turn, referred the five-justice majority in the email case for disciplinary investigation.
Hudson did not participate in the email decision or in the Jan. 3 decision curbing the chief justice’s authority to fire employees.
Baker told KARK.com that the previous three chief justices had the power to hire and fire.
“As the first woman elected to be the chief justice for the state of Arkansas in the state’s history, I will accept no less authority than my predecessors have,” Baker told the broadcast station.
