House of Representative Judiciary Committee
January 16, 2025
Representative Carol Dalby [00:00:01] ...thing is we're going to pick our seats. And we already have some who have gotten theirs. So we're going to start with Justin Gonzalea. You're up to pick your seat. No, that's a blank one. But anything else. You've got your tag there. Okay. Representative Gazaway, do you want to go down there and get your name tag off the-- Representative Crawford. Represented Clowney. Representative Collins. Representative McCullough. Representative Springer. Representative Beaty. No, this is Representative Shepherd's. Representative Shepherd has already taken it. Representative Beaty. Representative Hudson. Representative Jeremiah Moore. Representative Brown. Representative Brown, I'd like to leave four seats down there at the end. So feel free to move on up close to the front. Yeah. Representative Unger. Representative Richardson. And Representative Pearce. Thank you, members.
We're going to do a little bit a little out of order this morning, as is the practice in Judiciary. We often have the attorney general come to introduce his staff because we do have a lot of business with the attorney general's office. And so Attorney General Griffin is here in the room. Oh, there he is. If you'll just come to the table, attorney General, and the mic is yours.
Attorney General Tim Griffin [00:03:22] Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, for having me. Thank all of you for having me. I want to start out by saying thank you for supporting the stuff that we've been doing, particularly as it relates to my fiscal request earlier in the year to fund some very specific investigator slots. When I got the job, there were no full time investigators. They were splitting their duties with investigating and doing some other stuff. And the things that we're supposed to be investigating were not a priority necessarily because they were doing other stuff that was not related to investigations.
And as you know, criminals are creative and they're always looking for new ways to take from us, etc. So, you know, we've had a rise really in the development of organized retail crime over the last decade or so. So we really needed somebody looking at that. We started a cold case unit. We've got a full time human trafficking investigator. Obviously, public integrity. And you all funded that. We couldn't do it without you. So I get that you all are a critical part of the process. And thank you for letting me have the tools, funding the tools so that we can do our job.
I think I don't want to overlook that because really the worst case scenario is when you all think I'm doing something and we're not doing it because we don't have the body or the bodies or the tools or whatever. So my goal is to make sure that what you think we're doing, your expectations are aligned with the reality. And I think we're in a really good place right now on that. And so thank you for that. Hopefully I'll get to talk with you as a group, but also individually about some priorities down the road.
I know you've got a lot of other stuff to do today, but I do want to mention organized retail crime is a priority because our statutes don't really cover it. We've got a few changes on human trafficking. Juvenile justice is a priority. We've done a lot on the Protect Act. And I think the juvenile justice part of that equation needs to be looked at in depth. Cybersecurity, we had 1,700 people register and attend our 10-hour cyber security summit. So there are a lot of different priorities I look forward to working with you on.
But the point today is to introduce the folks that you're going to see a lot more than me. You already know Alex Benton. Stand up over there, Alex. You know Alex. She's the deputy. If you don't know Alex, you haven't been in the Capitol, okay? She's excellent. She's the deputy AG for Intergovernmental. She's a great resource. She has a wonderful relatively new baby. But you can always reach Alex. She's up 24/7, apparently because of the baby. And so she'll text you all through the morning. And she's just a great resource.
Justin Brasher is senior attorney. There's Justin, who has litigated a lot of our big front page of the paper cases and won. And he was a prosecutor before he came to us. But he wanted to get involved in intergovernmental after almost two years litigating and he is now senior assistant AG for Intergovernmental. He will be a great, great resource because there's only so many people Alex can talk to at one time. And Barrett Dudley, you know Barrett from his years in the House. I don't know if Barrett is back there. Barrett's not physically over there, but you all know Barrett. He's just a great, great guy and is a part of that team.
And during this time we expand to about 40 other people from our office who read every single bill and become part of this temporary elevated legislative team. They will be working through Alex and Justin, but we have a lot of subject matter experts and other people. And look, the goal is to help you, because if we help you, if the bill gets in litigation, which many do, we want to win. And there have been instances where there was a well-intentioned bill, but we knew it was dead on arrival in the federal court system because it was unconstitutional. And we got that particular bill that I'm thinking of changed. Another state did not. Theirs got killed in the federal court. Ours was never challenged. Now, it had to look different. Wasn't as politically flashy. But we're not about political flash at the cost of survival, at the expense of survival.
We're about good quality legislation that we can make a good faith argument in court about, and that doesn't always align with the first draft. But we're here to help you get it there, and we enjoy that. We're on the same team and we just want to be helpful. You all have my cell phone. Call me, text me if you can't get Alex or if you can. You will always get Alex. But we're just here to help and look forward to talking more.
Representative Carol Dalby [00:09:23] Thank you, Attorney General Griffin. We appreciate it. We appreciate the help your office gives this committee. It's always invaluable. And for the new members on this committee, when the attorney general says we're here to help you, he really does mean that. And so reach out to his office if you are having a bill in here, because they will look at it in terms of constitutional issues and try to help you make it a better bill. Thank you. Thank you for taking your time to come today. And we look forward to working with you and your staff.
Attorney General Tim Griffin [00:09:53] Thank you, Chairman. I'll make one other point. I will let you know if I have personal feelings about your bill, and I may oppose it on the substance, but that is not going to interfere with our legal analysis. If it's constitutional, I'll tell you. But I still may hate it and put my policy hat on and oppose it, but we're going to give you good legal advice. Thank you.
Representative Carol Dalby [00:10:18] Thank you. We appreciate that. Members, at this time, we're going to pass the sheet around while we're doing our other announcements. And for those of you who are new to this committee, what we do is communicate a lot by text message. And so I will need a good cell phone number that we can get a hold of you and a good email, your preferred email. So that sheet will be making its rounds, and if you'll do that.
Because we do things a little bit different in this committee than some committees just by the volume of the bills that get filed here. We don't just start at the top and start calling them. I will go to members. We already have several bills and I will reach out to members to see if they're ready to run their bill. We do it that way. Just like Representative Tosh this morning, he has a bill on our agenda. He's not quite ready because he needs some amendments. Well, there's no sense in me calling it three times and dropping it to deferred. So that's the way we run this committee.
If you have a bill in here and you're ready to run it, let me know and I'll slot a time for you and what you will receive from me from your email-- not email, but your text message from me is I will always text you the day before, hopefully two days before. You'll know on a Tuesday, hopefully, because I always announce, 'here's the bills I'm anticipating on Thursday.' On Wednesday I will confirm that with you by text message. So there's no reason for you to read the 200 or 300 bills that may get filed in this committee to try to be ready every day. You will know whether you have 4 or 5, 10 bills or just one bill, because otherwise you're going to spend a lot of time reading a lot of bills for this committee that we might not get to for a month or so. So that's how we operate.
If there's any questions, feel free to reach out to me on that. We do get through all of them. We have to work hard sometimes. We try not to stay late. We try to push through and that's how we're going to do that. I don't see any media in here, but our staff knows if you ever feel that the media is encroaching upon your desk or anything, let us know. But we always tell them that they can go to the very back, back there or off to the side. But if you feel like you have media coming in on you we try to watch that, but just let us know. And we let the media know where they can do.
Now, I'm pleased to have Representative Underwood. He's our new vice chair this year. Those of you have been here, I think he's our fourth vice chair since I've been in this chair. And we're looking forward to working. But he's not new to the committee. This is his third time to be on this committee. Looking forward to working with Representative Underwood.
And so we'll start with him. Go around the table. If you'll just briefly, so that people out here will know who's on our committee, tell us your name, your district, anything else you'd like for us to know. Of course, I feel like everybody knows who I am. But I'm Carol Dalby and I'm pleased to be the chair of this committee again. Representative Underwood.
Representative Kendon Underwood [00:13:30] Coming under way. This is my third term in the House. Third term on this committee. I serve District 16, which is in northwest Arkansas. Rogers, Lowell, Cave Springs area. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Thank the Speaker Evans for allowing me to do this and I appreciate being a vice chair as well and look forward to working with all of you.
Representative Dwight Tosh [00:13:49] Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Representative Dwight Tosh. I represent District 38, which covers the southern part of the Craighead County, part of Poinsett County and a small part of Jackson County. This actually is my third time to be on Judiciary. I was on Judiciary my first time and was vice chair my second time. So it's a great, great privilege and pleasure for me to be back on Judiciary. I have a background in law enforcement. I spent 37 years with the Arkansas State Police, and I retired from that agency as troop commander. So I'm looking forward to serving on this committee and serving with you, Madam Chair.
Representative Jon Eubanks [00:14:31] My name is Jon Eubanks. I'm the representative for District 46, West Central Arkansas, all of Logan County, part of Franklin, Sebastian and Johnson. This is actually my second time to be on this committee. The first time was my first term, and that was in 2011. And of course, this is my last term, so I'm glad to be here.
Representative Jimmy Gazaway [00:14:55] I'm Representative Jimmy Gazaway. I represent District 31, which is essentially just the city of Paragould. As you know, each of our legislative districts have 30,000 people. The city of Paragould has 30,000 people. And so when they did redistricting few years ago, I asked them to and they did, they drew my district as just the trace of the city limits of the city of Paragould. So that's my district.
Professionally, I'm a practicing attorney. I practiced law for the last 18 years. I practice with a law firm in Jonesboro, Snellgrove, Langley, Culpepper, Williams and Mullally. Prior to my election to the House, I served as a deputy prosecutor, which you'll hear me reference from time to time in this committee, for nine years before I was elected. I've been on Judiciary all five terms-- this will be my fifth term-- all terms since I've been elected. So it's a great committee, does a lot of good work, and I look forward to working with you all. Thank you.
Representative Justin Gonzales [00:15:51] Just Gonzales, District 89. It's Polk County, Clark County and Nevada County and a small portion of Hot Spring and Garland County. This is my first time on this committee, and I'm looking forward to learning new things.
Representative Nicole Clowney [00:16:08] I'm Nicole Clowney. I represent District 21, which is Fayetteville. I am a lapsed but licensed lawyer and I am four for four. This is my fourth term and my fourth time on Judiciary, so I'm happy to be back.
Representative Cindy Crawford [00:16:22] Hello, Cindy Crawford. I serve District 51, which is Fort Smith, south and east parts of Fort Smith. This is my fourth term and I am four for four as well. So fourth term, fourth time on Judiciary. Looking forward to working with you guys. Thanks.
Representative Andrew Collins [00:16:43] Andrew Collins. I represent parts of Little Rock. Same, four for four on this committee. Great committee. Thanks.
Representative Joy Springer [00:16:54] Good morning. My name is Joy Springer. I am state representative for District 76. My district starts like in Midtown and goes all the way to Barrow road. And this is my third term serving in the House of Representatives, and I previously served on this committee before not being a legislator under the tutelage of Representative John Walker. So I'm familiar with this committee. Thank you and look forward to serving.
Representative Jeremiah Moore [00:17:25] My name is Jeremiah Moore. I represent District 61, covers a large swath of East Arkansas, the southeast third of Jackson County, all of Woodruff County, the eastern third of Prairie County, a little over half of Monroe County and most of Arkansas County. This is my second term sitting on Judiciary and I'm glad to be here. Happy to serve.
Representative Shad Pearce [00:17:47] Shad Pearce, District 40. I represent a lot of Independence County, a little bit of White and a little bit of Cleveland. I'm honored to be here. I'm two for two on Judiciary. And I'm honored to serve again. And I just pray to be fair and consistent throughout. Thank you.
Representative Scott Richardson [00:18:12] Good morning. Scott Richardson, District 13, which is actually Bentonville, Rogers, and I don't know, but it may be the smallest geographic district in the state. But anyway, mostly urban, mostly subdivisions, that kind of stuff. This is my first time on Judiciary. A little overwhelmed with the idea. I'm not a lawyer and have no idea what to expect, but we'll make it fine either way. So I'm happy to be on the committee.
Representative Carol Dalby [00:18:41] We'll remind you, Mr. Richardson, the lawyers here, we could all say, 'we're lawyers, we're working for the government, we're here to help you.'
Representative Steve Unger [00:18:52] Good morning. I'm Steve Unger. Second term, second term on Judiciary. I represent District 19, which is South Springdale, West Springdale, all of Johnson, a little bit of Fayetteville and a little bit of Tontitown.
Representative Matt Brown [00:19:09] Matt Brown, District 55, the west half city of Conway. First time on Judiciary.
Representative Howard Beaty [00:19:19] Representative Howard Beaty, District 95. Ashley County, Chicot County in Southeast Arkansas. Third term Legislator. First time in Judiciary. Had so much fun in here last session running a couple of bills, I just couldn't resist being a part of this great committee. And look forward to the debate that we'll have in here.
Representative Tippi McCullough [00:19:42] Tippi McCullough. I represent District 74, downtown Little Rock up through the middle. Going into my fourth term but third term on Judiciary.
Representative Ashley Hudson [00:19:54] Ashley Hudson. District 75, West Little Rock. Starting my third term and third term on Judiciary. Also entering my 18th year practicing law. I'm civil litigation on plaintiff and defense side both, employment and health care regulatory work as well.
Representative Brian Evans [00:20:13] I'm Brian Evans, District 68, which is all of the city of Cabot and a small portion of North Lonoke county. Outside of the legislature, I own a supply chain management logistics company. The past three terms, I've been on the Public Education Committee and made the decision to move over to Judiciary this time. So I'm looking forward to working with this group. Chairman Dalby and Vice Chairman Underwood, thank you.
Representative Carol Dalby [00:20:39] Thank you, Members. As chair of this committee, I'm excited to have each one of you on here. We are at times light hearted. The matters that come before us are very serious. And with that, I will remind you, as I will occasionally, we have a varied group of folks who will come, citizens of Arkansas who will want to speak for and against. And it is always, and I'm proud of this committee for this fact, that we are always very respectful to the folks who come before us. We don't limit their time. So those of you who have come from other committees, we typically don't limit time. Now I will limit them. And if it gets out of hand, we'll start limiting it. But we try to give everybody an opportunity.
And so I just remind you, we always want to treat our fellow citizens with respect when they come before us. And likewise, we respect each other on this committee. We will have varying, even the lawyers among the committee will have opposite views on things. But we treat each other with great respect and I will expect people who come to treat us with respect. So those of you who are returning members know how those kinds of things work.
We do have four new members. You may not know our staff that's been with us for a little while. We have Kobe Little, who is our committee analyst. All of you all, most of you all, I think, know Kobe. We're excited to have you with us again. And they're working really hard to make things comfortable. We also have Emily Jamison, and she is kind of new in her role but has already taken hold and is really doing fine things. So, members, if you need anything, let us know. Emily, We'll get to you. Kobe will help you out. So we're really lucky that we have these individuals.
Our committee attorney is Caitlin Bennett. I know those of you who are already running stuff in this committee probably have met Caitlin. She's not in the room today, but Caitlin is our committee. So we have just a few minutes because we will go to the House floor at 10:30.
But we have a number of people who we often refer to as our frequent fliers that sit in our committee room because we are just a little toe tapping with butterflies and rainbows in this committee. And so they like to come all the time. And so-- now, Scott, you're laughing. So if there's anybody in the room, if you'd like to come to the table, this is your time to do it. You can come. We're not going to ask any questions. Just come introduce yourself and tell us what role you appear in our committee. And we certainly would even welcome any of the lobbyists in the room if they would like to announce who it is that they work for. So you're welcome. Anybody on the front row? Scott, let's just start with you since you were laughing. Now just go to the table so that the cameras can pick you up. [Audience Introductions]
Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for coming. Am I missing anybody? Are we good? If not, I'll circle back to you on Tuesday. I want to thank everybody for being here who came. As you can tell, we have a lot of folks who come to our committee. Just a last few announcements that I want to make. We do start on time. And this committee takes 11 of us for a quorum. When we take a vote, since we have the speaker on our committee, it takes ten votes to get a bill out of this committee unless the speaker is in attendance, then it will take 11. I've already talked to you about how we will be doing our agendas.
Probably the most important announcement, so make sure you know this. There is the member's restroom back here. Close the door when you go in. Leave the door open when you come out because this door will lock and nobody else can get in. So that's the key announcement for this committee. Or y'all will be hunting a facility off from here. So are there any questions from the committee members? Have I covered everything? He's got more. Hang on. Yes. Amendments should always be in writing. Let us know ahead of time if you're bringing an amendment.
There will be sometimes special orders of business. Once again, I handle those. I try to find a good date. A photographer. We're going to look at maybe next Thursday for our house picture, if we can get that done. So just kind of pencil that in. We'll show up a few minutes early. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. We will meet Tuesday at 10:00. The chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court is scheduled to be here. She would like to make a few remarks, and I'm anticipating that we may have a bill to read in. So if I get that notice and worked out with the member, then I will also let you know any other questions. If not, we are adjourned.
