List of justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court

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 chief justices[]

Chief Justice	In office	Notes^[2]
Daniel Ringo	1836–1844
	1845–1852
George C. Watkins	1853–1854
	1855–1864	After May 6, 1861, the state was part of the Confederate States of America
	1864–1866	After April 9, 1865, the state was once again part of the USA
	1866–1868	Ousted by military commander
William W. Wilshire	1868–1871
John E. McClure	1871–1874	Constitution of 1868; previously an associate justice (position 5)
	1874–1884
	1884–1893
Henry G. Bunn	1893–1904	Appointed; subsequently elected
Joseph M. Hill	1904–1909
Edgar A. McCulloch	1909–1927	Appointed; subsequently elected
	1927–1933
Cecil E. Johnson	1933–1936
Griffin Smith	1937–1955
Lee Seamster	1955–1956	Appointed
Carleton Harris	1957–1980
	1980	Appointed; previously an associate justice (position 6)
	1980–1984
Webster Lee Hubbell	1984	Appointed by Governor Bill Clinton
	1985–1995
Bradley D. Jesson	1995–1996	Appointed
	1997–2003
Betty Dickey	2004	Appointed
Jim Hannah	2005–2015	Previously an associate justice (position 5)
	2015–2016	Appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson
Dan Kemp	2017–Present

List of associate justices[]

Position 2[]

Associate Justice (position 2)	In office	Notes^[2]
	1836–1842
	1843
William K. Sebastian	1843–1844
Williamson S. Oldham	1845–1848
Christopher C. Scott	1848–1859
Henry M. Rector	1859–1860
	1860–1864
Albert Pike	1864–1865	appointed^[3]
Charles A. Harper	1865–1866
	1866–1868	ousted by military commander
Lafayette Gregg	1868–1874	Constitution of 1868
	1874–1878
	1878
	1878–1885
Burrill B. Battle	1885–1910
William F. Kirby	1910–1916
	1916–1942	appointed
	1943–1949
	1949–1950	appointed
	1951–1965
Osro Cobb	1965–1966	appointed
	1967–1977
Elsijane Trimble Roy	1977	appointed
George Howard Jr.	1977–1978	appointed
	1979–1989
	1990	appointed
Donald L. Corbin	1991–2014
Robin Wynne	2014–Present

Position 3[]

Associate Justice (position 3)	In office	Notes^[2]
	1836–1845
Edward Cross	1845–1846
William Conway	1847–1848
	1849–1855
	1856–1858
Felix I. Batson	1859
	1859–1864	Confederate
	1866–1868
Thomas M. Bowen	1868–1871
John E. Bennett	1871–1874
	1874	appointed
	1874–1882
	1882–1888
	1889–1890
	1891–1894
	1894–1907	appointed; subsequently elected
	1907–1927	appointed; subsequently elected
	1927–1948
	1948	appointed
	1949–1987
	1987–2008
Elana Cunningham Wills	2008–2010	appointed
Courtney Hudson	2010–Present

Position 4[]

Associate Justice (position 4)	In office	Notes
	1868–1872	Constitution of 1868
	1873	Constitution of 1868
	1889–1893
	1893	appointed
Carroll D. Wood	1893–1929
	1929–1938
	1938	appointed
	1938–1961
	1961–1962	appointed
	1963–1966
	1966	appointed
Conley Byrd	1967–1980
	1980	appointed
Robert H. Dudley	1981–1996
Ray Thornton	1997–2004
	2005–2012
Josephine L. Hart	2012–2020
Barbara Webb	2021–present

Position 5[]

Associate Justice (position 5)	In office	Notes
John E. McClure	1868–1871	Constitution of 1868
	1871–1873	Constitution of 1868
Simon Pollard Hughes Jr.	1889–1904
Edgar A. McCulloch	1904–1909
	1909–1912	appointed
Frank G. Smith	1912–1949
	1949–1950	appointed
	1951–1968
	1969–1983
	1984	appointed
	1985–1998
Lavenski R. 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
	1941–1942	appointed
	1943
	1943–1944	appointed
	1945–1958
	1958	appointed
Jim Johnson	1959–1966
	1966	appointed
	1967–1980	appointed Chief Justice
	1980	appointed
Steele Hays	1981–1994
Andree Layton Roaf	1995–1996	appointed
Annabelle Clinton Imber	1997–2009
	2010	appointed
	2010	appointed
Karen Baker	2010–Present

Position 7[]

Associate Justice (position 7)	In office	Notes
	1927	died before assuming office
Tom M. Mehaffy	1927–1942	appointed; subsequently elected
	1943–1966
	1967–1975
Elsijane Trimble Roy	1975–1977	appointed
	1977–1990
Dale Price	1990
Robert L. Brown	1991–2012	^[4]
Cliff Hoofman	2013–2014	^[5]
Rhonda Wood	2015–Present

References[]

^ ^a ^b 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c 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.
^ http://judgepedia.org/Robert_L._Brown
^ http://judgepedia.org/Cliff_Hoofman

External links[]

[bg-1] 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.

[list-2] 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.

[3] 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.

[4] ttp://judgepedia.org/Robert_L._Brown

[5] ttp://judgepedia.org/Cliff_Hoofman

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