Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Supreme Court in Hope

The talk by Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Justice Jim Gunter began with a quiz.

Gunter asked sophomores at Hope High School what year the first Supreme Court began.

There were few guesses.

Gunter and his colleagues held court in Hope at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope campus during the morning and wrapped up the day with some personal visits around the area. Both Gunter and Lewisville native Associate Justice Donald Corbin took time out to talk to students in the afternoon.

He told students that he had been asked to take the law school entrance exam directly out of college, but declined.

I thought he was angry at me, Gunter said. I was offended.

Gunter said he began his adult life not as an attorney but working in a saw mill. From there, he began work as an insurance adjustor - the place he became familiar with attorneys.

Thats when he decided to give law school a try and he said he finished his law degree while continuing to work full time in insurance.

When he started work in Hope as an attorney, he had no aspirations to do anything more, Gunter said. But the attorney he worked for told him to run for judge.

I said, Yes sir, he said.

It was while he was holding his first position on the bench that he decided it might be good to move up and he eventually made his bid for a seat on the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Gunter told students that there are some major differences between trials at the circuit court level and those at the appellate level. At the circuit level, the judges are concerned with finding the facts of the case as well as following the law. Once a case is appealed to the Supreme Court or Court of Appeals, the facts have been dealt with. Gunter said that the justices look at the facts only to determine that there was sufficient evidence for the judge and/or jury to arrive at their decision.

Were concerned about law, Gunter said.

He said the job of the justices is to be certain that the law was followed. Those cases that are overturned are almost always done so based on error of law - not on anything related to the facts of the case.

When he called for questions, Gunter was asked about school violence. Both he and Corbin talked briefly about instances of violence and the need to balance the rights of an individual with the right to feel safe in schools.

Gunter said that the decision to hold court in Hope happened because of a legislative decision that allows the court to meet in places other than the states Supreme Court building in Little Rock. Over the past few years, the justices have traveled to several locations and Gunter said he was pleased to have a session in Hope.

He said the court session and decision were the same and held in the same order as regular sessions held in Little Rock.

Todays Supreme Court has seven members. Gunter took time to offer students some points of historical fact as part of his presentation. He said Steve Austin - the man for whom Austin, Texas, was named - is believed to be the first man to hold a formal court in Hempstead County. That event occurred at the site of the former territorial headquarters.

And in case anyone didnt know when the Supreme Court was established, Gunter offered the answer. The Arkansas Constitution of 1836 - the year the territory earned the rights of statehood - included three seats for a Supreme Court.