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Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Sues To Block Group's TV Ads

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson
Arkansas Courts

An Arkansas Supreme Court justice is asking a judge to prevent several television stations from airing a conservative group's ads targeting her during her re-election bid.

Justice Courtney Goodson filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court Monday seeking an order to block the ads run by the Judicial Crisis Network. The Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks judicial spending, says the Washington-based group has spent more than $519,000 on television ads.

Goodson is running against state Appeals Court Judge Kenneth Hixson and Department of Human Services Chief Counsel David Sterling in the May 22 non-partisan election. 

The ads criticize Goodson for gifts from donors and a pay raise the court requested last year. Goodson's lawsuit calls them "defamatory, false and misleading."

JCN over the weekend also began airing ads criticizing Hixson for authoring a 2016 ruling that granted a new trial for a convicted rapist. The ad doesn't mention that four other judges joined in on the decision reversing Ramon Perez's conviction.

Another group, the Republican State Leadership Committee, has been running spots in support of Sterling.

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