# Knowlton v. Ward

> Supreme Court of Arkansas · December 5, 1994 · 318 Ark. 867

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9662097

## Case

- **Full name:** Melissa KNOWLTON v. Harry WARD
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Arkansas
- **Decided:** December 5, 1994
- **Citations:** 318 Ark. 867; 889 S.W.2d 721; 1994 Ark. LEXIS 729
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Newbern
- **Judges:** Joann C. Maxey
- **Cited by:** 26 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9662097

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- observing that rules of constitutional construction track those of statutory construction

## Opinion text

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. With some temerity, recognizing that consistency is sometimes said to be the hobgoblin of small minds, I suggest we should remember what we did two months ago. In The Unborn Child Amendment Comm. v. Ward, 318 Ark. 165 , 883 S.W.2d 817 (1994), we postponed interpretation of Amendment 68 because a United States District Court had declared it “void,” sort of, and that decision was on appeal. As was noted in the dissenting opinion, the state court injunction we were asked to review was not necessarily inconsistent with that of the federal court.
Today we barge ahead and interpret Amendment 68 because “neither party filed a motion for stay.” Are we saying the federal court decision has somehow lost its vitality because the parties in last month’s case asked us for a stay but the ones now before us have not? We should have answered the questions asked about Amendment 68 last month. Having declined to do so then, however, we should decline to do so now.
I respectfully dissent.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9662097. Public record. Not legal advice.