New justice on Arkansas Supreme Court won’t participate in case over education law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A justice who Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed to the Arkansas Supreme Court won’t participate in the case regarding Sanders’ education overhaul.

Justice Cody Hiland on Friday recused from hearing the state’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that the education overhaul can’t take effect until Aug. 1. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright ruled that legislators did not follow correct procedures for the law to take effect immediately after Sanders signed it.

Hiland, a former state Republican Party chairman and federal prosecutor, did not give a reason for recusing from the case. Sanders earlier this month appointed Hiland to fill the vacancy created on the seven-member court following Justice Robin Wynne’s death.

Arkansas has ended the fiscal year with its second largest surplus in history. Finance officials on Wednesday have reported the state’s surplus for the fiscal year was more than $1.1 billion.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has named state Republican Party chairman and former federal prosecutor Cody Hiland to the Supreme Court.

An Arkansas judge has ruled that a recently passed education law cannot take effect until Aug. 1. Friday’s ruling puts in doubt state education officials’ vote to let a charter school organization take over a small school district.

A tech industry trade group is suing Arkansas over its law requiring parental permission for minors to create new social media accounts.

The court has granted the state’s request to expedite the case, but set an Aug. 18 deadline for final briefs to be filed.

The education measure Sanders signed in March creates a new school voucher program and raises minimum teacher pay. The case before the Supreme Court stems from a lawsuit challenging a contract approved under the law for a charter school group to run an east Arkansas school district.