Justice Courtney Goodson of Arkansas; ethical goblin

The state of Arkansas provided Courtney Hudson Goodson with a law license in 1997 after she graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville Law School.

It should be noted that Courtney has had her snout permanently implanted in the public trough for the past twenty-one (21) years since she received her law license in 1997. Apparently, no self-respecting law firm in the greater Little Rock area was about to offer Courtney a good paying job.

In one matter involving Courtney’s bid to be reelected to the Arkansas Supreme Court, she took umbrage to televisions ads linking her to a Fayetteville lawyer who had lavished her with personal gifts.

The ad criticized Courtney for accepting some $50,000 in gifts, including a trip to Italy and a stint on a private yacht, from an attorney named W.H. Taylor. Though Taylor is not named in the ad, he was the source of each gift cited in the package.

In a highly questionable act, so-called Circuit Court Judge Doug Martin issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the group that produced the ad regarding the $50,000 in gifts Courtney received from attorney Taylor.

In granting the TRO, Judge Martin had the chutzpah to claim that Courtney had had plausibly shown the allegations in the ad are false and defamatory. However, professor Eugene Volokh, a leading First Amendment scholar, argued that Martin’s order is unconstitutional.

In addition, Judge Martin was also the recipient of campaign contributions of at least $1,000 from attorney Taylor. Martin’s wife Amy is a business partner of Courtney’s husband John Goodson. In Martin’s 2017 financial interest statement he indicated that Mrs. Martin owns an equity stake in a consultancy called Capitol Square Strategy, which is owned by Courtney’s husband John Goodson.

Despite these obvious and glaring conflicts of interest, Judge Martin had no problem in ruling in favor of Courtney. Such conduct isn’t unusual for Judge Martin who has been the subject of the following article.

Judge Doug Martin of Fayetteville, AR; bully, loser

https://tinyurl.com/lb3hbdq