AR Times: “In 2025, Arkansas Republicans passed a number of bills designed to limit or restrict Arkansans’ ability to change state laws and amend the state constitution at the ballot box. It wasn’t the first time the state Legislature has chipped away at the ballot measure process — a right guaranteed under the Arkansas Constitution — but the recent bills were especially aggressive. They seem designed to make it harder than ever, if not impossible, for a group to collect the tens of thousands of voter signatures needed to place a measure on the ballot.
In a lengthy opinion handed down last week, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks said several of those new laws were likely unconstitutional because they violated the First Amendment’s protections for core political speech. Brooks entered a preliminary injunction, prohibiting the state from enforcing the unconstitutional statutes against three groups that plan to circulate petitions for ballot measures in 2026.
The judge’s order was a win for direct democracy advocates, but it was limited in scope. Brooks declined to block several other laws that also hinder the ballot measure process. And, importantly, the judge’s order applied only to the specific groups that are parties to the litigation. As of now, all of Arkansas’s restrictive laws are still in place for any other group that might seek to put a measure on the ballot.”