Arkansas
US Supreme Court Punts Case Challenging Arkansas Congressional Map
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A case challenging Arkansas’ congressional districts will go back to the district court where the court will have to apply the new standards adopted in South Carolina’s recently decided racial gerrymandering case. After last month’s Supreme Court decision in the South Carolina case, this is the first racial gerrymandering case to be impacted by the Supreme Court’s decision.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in the South Carolina case, the plaintiffs in the case challenging Arkansas’ map will now have to reach a higher bar in order to bring a successful challenge to the state’s congressional map.
Throughout the 2020 redistricting cycle, Republicans used their map drawing power to strip Black voters of political influence, and Arkansas was no exception. Black voters challenged the state’s congressional map in court, but were not successful in getting the map blocked.
In June 2023, Black voters — in a previously dismissed lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ congressional map — appealed their case to the Supreme Court after a three-judge panel found that the plaintiffs did not show that “race was the ‘predominant factor’ behind the adoption of Arkansas’s new congressional map.” Their lawsuit, which they filed back in March 2022, argued that the state’s congressional map violates the U.S. and Arkansas Constitutions as well as Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Currently, voters cannot bring Section 2 claims in Arkansas or any state within the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — the only federal appeals court to explicitly remove private litigants’ ability to sue under Section 2.
The plaintiffs specifically allege that Black voters in Pulaski County, home to the state capital of Little Rock, were divided across three congressional districts rather than kept together in one district, the 2nd Congressional District. According to the plaintiffs, this was done “to discourage the incentive of the Black voters of the area to vote, and to reduce the significance of their votes.”
Unlike the majority of cases appealed to the Supreme Court, the Court was required to issue a decision in this case since the plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the map under the 14th and 15th Amendments.
Read the order here.
Learn more about the case here.
Only a very low risk of storms continues in southern Arkansas on Wednesday evening, then shower chances are possible Wednesday evening and overnight in central and southern Arkansas.
A stray shower is possible on Thursday, but most will be dry with mostly cloudy skies and cooler-than-normal temperatures. Highs will reach the upper 60s in central Arkansas on Thursday.
More rain chances move in Friday, but chances are highest for southern Arkansas. A few stray storms are also possible in southern Arkansas on Friday into pre-dawn Saturday.
Conditions are dry this weekend, with temperatures warming throughout the weekend. More rain chances return next week, and the 80s are back by Sunday into Monday.
LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) — The University of Central Arkansas School of Nursing is celebrating a major milestone after earning full accreditation for its simulation center, the Nabholz Center for Healthcare Simulation.
The recognition comes from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, marking the first time a collegiate simulation center in Arkansas has achieved the distinction.
“This international accreditation was really one way to showcase what we do here every day,” said Dr. Susan Gatto, Director of the UCA School of Nursing.
The achievement has been a decade in the making. What began as an idea has grown into a 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility designed to give nursing students hands-on experience in a realistic but risk-free environment.
“About 10 years ago we had this idea that we wanted to build a simulation center that was state of the art, high quality, that would allow the students to have a safe place to learn,” Gatto said.
Inside the center, students train using high-tech mannequins that can simulate breathing, heart rates, and other medical conditions. Faculty say the environment helps prepare students for real-world healthcare settings beyond the classroom.
“Becoming the first university in the state of Arkansas was a massive undertaking,” said Erin Garrett, Simulation Co-Coordinator and Quality Manager at the UCA School of Nursing.
The accreditation process required extensive documentation, curriculum mapping, and evaluation of the program’s standards and outcomes.
Gatto says the milestone is both professional and personal.
“I am so proud of this. This is like a dream I had back in 2016 and for this to come to fruition is like a dream come true for me,” she said.
While UCA is the first college in Arkansas to earn full accreditation through the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, it is the second simulation center of any kind in the state to receive the honor.
Arkansas
Both sides oppose federal lawsuit over Arkansas election law being found moot | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
FAYETTEVILLE — A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law banning exit polling within 100 feet of a polling site still has issues both sides want resolved, according to court filings.
Bryan Norris initially sought a preliminary injunction against Act 728 of 2021 that would have allowed his campaign to contract for exit polling during the March primary election. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks denied the motion Feb. 27, stating the state law being challenged is probably constitutional.
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