List of justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court

Last updated February 17, 2025

The following is a list of justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court. Article VI, Section 1, of the Arkansas Constitution of 1836 established a Supreme Court; Section 2 declared it would consist of three judges, including a chief justice.^[1]

The Reconstruction Constitution of 1868, which placed the state under military control, added two justices; the Arkansas Constitution of 1874 rolled back the expansion, but stipulated that once the population of the state should "amount to one million, the General Assembly may, if deemed necessary, increase the number of judges of the Supreme Court to five."^[1] In 1889, the population milestone was reached, and the legislature authorized a total of five justices. Constitutional sanction of the enlargement came in 1924 with voter approval of Amendment 9, which also allowed for the future legislative creation of two additional judgeships. Act 205 of 1925 further increased the number of justices to seven.

Note: Some early justices were able to be elected to positions they were appointed to. Ark. Const., Amendment 29, adopted in 1938, prohibited state, county, and city appointees from being elected to the same position.

List of judges of the Superior Court of the Arkansas Territory

From 1819 to 1836, the highest court in the Arkansas Territory was the Superior Court, which consisted of presidentially-appointed judges who served four-year terms. The court was established with three judges, with a fourth added in 1828.^[2] Below is a list of the judges that constituted that court:^[3]^[4]

Judge	Date(s) of appointment	Appointing president(s)	Notes
Charles Jouett	March 3, 1819	Monroe	did not serve
Robert P. Letcher	March 3, 1819	Monroe	did not serve
Andrew Scott	March 3, 1819 December 9, 1822	Monroe
Joseph Selden	May 10, 1820 January 5, 1824	Monroe
John Thomson	May 10, 1820	Monroe	did not serve
Benjamin Johnson	January 18, 1821 December 13, 1824 December 11, 1828 December 11, 1832	Monroe Monroe J.Q. Adams Jackson
William Trimble	December 13, 1824 December 11, 1828	Monroe J.Q. Adams
Thomas P. Eskridge	March 1, 1827 January 31, 1831	J.Q. Adams Jackson
Edward Cross	May 21, 1830 December 16, 1833	Jackson
Charles S. Bibb	February 1, 1832	Jackson
Alexander M. Clayton	December 11, 1832	Jackson
Thomas J. Lacy	March 17, 1834	Jackson
Archibald Yell	January 7, 1835	Jackson

List of chief justices

Chief Justice	In office	Notes^[5]
Daniel Ringo	1836–1844
Thomas Johnson	1845–1852
George C. Watkins	1853–1854
Elbert H. English	1855–1864	After May 6, 1861, the state was part of the Confederate States of America
Thomas D. W. Yonley	1864–1866	After April 9, 1865, the state was once again part of the USA
David Walker	1866–1868	Ousted by military commander
William W. Wilshire	1868–1871
John McClure	1871–1874	Constitution of 1868; previously an associate justice (position 5)
Elbert H. English	1874–1884
Sterling R. Cockrill	1884–1893
Henry Gaston Bunn	1893–1904	Appointed; subsequently elected
Joseph Morrison Hill	1904–1909
Edgar A. McCulloch	1909–1927	Appointed; subsequently elected
Jesse C. Hart	1927–1933
Cecil E. Johnson	1933–1936
Griffin Smith	1937–1955
Lee Seamster	1955–1956	Appointed
Carleton Harris	1957–1980
John A. Fogleman	1980	Appointed; previously an associate justice (position 6)
Richard B. Adkisson	1980–1984
Webster Hubbell	1984	Appointed by Governor Bill Clinton
Jack Holt Jr.	1985–1995
Bradley D. Jesson	1995–1996	Appointed
W. H. "Dub" Arnold	1997–2003
Betty Dickey	2004	Appointed
Jim Hannah	2005–2015	Previously an associate justice (position 5)
Howard W. Brill	2015–2016	Appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson
John Dan Kemp	2017–2025
Karen R. Baker	2025–present

List of associate justices

Position 2

Associate Justice (position 2)	In office	Notes^[5]
Townsend Dickinson	1836–1842
George W. Paschal	1843
William K. Sebastian	1843–1844
Williamson Simpson Oldham	1845–1848
Christopher C. Scott	1848–1859
Henry Massey Rector	1859–1860
Hulbert F. Fairchild	1860–1864
Albert Pike	1864–1865	appointed^[6]
Charles A. Harper	1865–1866
Freeman W. Compton	1866–1868	ousted by military commander
Lafayette Gregg	1868–1874	Constitution of 1868
David Walker	1874–1878
Jesse Turner	1878
John R. Eakin	1878–1885
Burrill B. Battle	1885–1910
William F. Kirby	1910–1916
Thomas H. Humphreys	1916–1942	appointed
R. W. Robins	1943–1949
Robert A. Leflar	1949–1950	appointed
Sam Dunn Robinson	1951–1965
Osro Cobb	1965–1966	appointed
J. Fred Jones	1967–1977
Elsijane Trimble Roy	1977	appointed
George Howard Jr.	1977–1978	appointed
John I. Purtle	1979–1989
Otis H. Turner	1990	appointed
Donald L. Corbin	1991–2014
Robin F. Wynne	2014–2023
J. Cody Hiland	2023–2025	appointed
Courtney Rae Hudson	2025–present

Position 3

Associate Justice (position 3)	In office	Notes^[5]
Thomas J. Lacy	1836–1845
Edward Cross	1845–1846
William Conway	1847–1848
David Walker	1849–1855
Thomas Burton Hanly	1856–1858
Felix Ives Batson	1859
Freeman W. Compton	1859–1864	Confederate
John J. Clendenin	1866–1868
Thomas M. Bowen	1868–1871
John E. Bennett	1871–1874
Freeman W. Compton	1874	appointed
William M. Harrison	1874–1882
William W. Smith	1882–1888
Monte H. Sandels	1889–1890
William W. Mansfield	1891–1894
James E. Riddick	1894–1907	appointed; subsequently elected
Jesse C. Hart	1907–1927	appointed; subsequently elected
Edgar L. McHaney	1927–1948
Charles C. Wine	1948	appointed
George Rose Smith	1949–1987
Tom Glaze	1987–2008
Elana Wills	2008–2010	appointed
Courtney Rae Hudson	2010–2025
J. Cody Hiland	2025–present	appointed

Position 4

Associate Justice (position 4)	In office	Notes
William M. Harrison	1868–3123	Constitution of 1868
Marshall L. Stephenson	1873	Constitution of 1868
Wilson E. Hemingway	1889–1893
Richard H. Powell	1893	appointed
Carroll D. Wood	1893–1929
Turner Butler	1929–1938
William Robert Donham	1938	appointed
J. Seaborn Holt	1938–1961
Neill Bohlinger	1961–1962	appointed
J. Frank Holt	1963–1966
Hugh M. Bland	1966	appointed
Conley Byrd	1967–1980
Richard Mays	1980	appointed
Robert H. Dudley	1981–1996
Ray Thornton	1997–2004
Jim Gunter	2005–2012
Josephine L. Hart	2012–2020
Barbara Womack Webb	2021–present

Position 5

Associate Justice (position 5)	In office	Notes
John E. McClure	1868–1871	Constitution of 1868
Elhanan J. Searle	1871–1873	Constitution of 1868
Simon Pollard Hughes Jr.	1889–1904
Edgar A. McCulloch	1904–1909
Samuel Frauenthal	1909–1912	appointed
Frank G. Smith	1912–1949
Edwin Dunaway	1949–1950	appointed
Paul Ward	1951–1968
J. Frank Holt	1969–1983
P. A. "Les" Hollingsworth	1984	appointed
David Newbern	1985–1998
Lavenski Smith	1999–2000	appointed
Jim Hannah	2001–2004	elected Chief Justice
Betty Dickey	2005–2006	appointed
Paul Danielson	2006–2016
Shawn Womack	2017–present

Position 6

Associate Justice (position 6)	In office	Notes
William F. Kirby	1927–1934
Basil Baker	1934–1941
Karl Greenhaw	1941–1942	appointed
Ben Carter	1943
Robert C. Knox	1943–1944	appointed
Minor W. Millwee	1945–1958
William J. Smith	1958	appointed
James D. Johnson	1959–1966
Guy Amsler	1966	appointed
John A. Fogleman	1967–1980	appointed Chief Justice
John F. Stroud Jr.	1980	appointed
Steele Hays	1981–1994
Andree Layton Roaf	1995–1996	appointed
Annabelle Clinton Imber Tuck	1997–2009
William H. Bowen	2010	appointed
Ronald Lee Sheffield	2010	appointed
Karen R. Baker	2010–2025
Nicholas Bronni	2025–present	appointed

Position 7

Associate Justice (position 7)	In office	Notes
James W. Mehaffy	1927	died before assuming office
Tom M. Mehaffy	1927–1942	appointed; subsequently elected
Ed F. McFaddin	1943–1966
Lyle Brown	1967–1975
Elsijane Trimble Roy	1975–1977	appointed
Darrell Hickman	1977–1990
Dale Price	1990
Robert L. Brown	1991–2012	^[7]
Cliff Hoofman	2013–2014	^[8]
Rhonda K. Wood	2015–present

References

1 2 William B. Jones Jr. (original compiler). "Arkansas Courts Historical Background". Courts Historical Background. State of Arkansas. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
↑ Hempstead, Samuel H. (1856). Hempstead's Reports. p. iii-iv.
↑ Jones, William B. Jr. (August 23, 2023). "Supreme Court of Arkansas". Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
↑ Bicentennial Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States (1983). Judges of the United States (2 ed.).
1 2 3 William B. Jones Jr. (original compiler). "Arkansas Courts Historical Background". Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas (1836–2011). State of Arkansas. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
↑ Brown, Walter Lee (1997). A Life of Albert Pike. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press. pp. 426–429. ISBN 1-55728-469-5. LCCN 97019116. OL 673049M.
↑ "Robert L. Brown - Judgepedia". December 8, 2014. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014.
↑ "Cliff Hoofman - Judgepedia". October 6, 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.

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[bg-1] 1 2 William B. Jones Jr. (original compiler). "Arkansas Courts Historical Background". Courts Historical Background. State of Arkansas. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.

[2] Hempstead, Samuel H. (1856). Hempstead's Reports. p. iii-iv.

[3] Jones, William B. Jr. (August 23, 2023). "Supreme Court of Arkansas". Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

[4] Bicentennial Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States (1983). Judges of the United States (2 ed.).

[list-5] 1 2 3 William B. Jones Jr. (original compiler). "Arkansas Courts Historical Background". Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas (1836–2011). State of Arkansas. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.

[6] Brown, Walter Lee (1997). A Life of Albert Pike. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press. pp. 426–429. ISBN 1-55728-469-5. LCCN 97019116. OL 673049M.

[7] "Robert L. Brown - Judgepedia". December 8, 2014. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014.

[8] "Cliff Hoofman - Judgepedia". October 6, 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.

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