Courtney Rae Hudson
2025 - Present
2030
0
Courtney Rae Hudson is a judge for Position 2 of the Arkansas Supreme Court. She assumed office on January 1, 2025. Her current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Hudson ran in a special election for the Position 2 judge of the Arkansas Supreme Court. She won in the special general election on March 5, 2024.
Goodson first became a member of the Arkansas Supreme Court through a nonpartisan election. She was first elected to the court in 2010 to the seat vacated by Tom Glaze. To read more about judicial selection in Arkansas, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[1] Hudson Goodson received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Goodson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas in 1994, graduating magna cum laude, and her J.D. with high honors from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1997. Before joining the court, she clerked for Arkansas Court of Appeals Judges Terry Crabtree and Frank Arey.[3]
Goodson served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals representing District 3 from 2008 until 2010.[3]
Elections
2024
See also: Arkansas Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
Special general election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 2
Incumbent Courtney Rae Hudson defeated Carlton D. Jones in the special general election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 2 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Courtney Rae Hudson (Nonpartisan) | 60.3 | 189,087 | |
| Carlton D. Jones (Nonpartisan) | 39.7 | 124,619 | ||
| Total votes: 313,706 | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Hudson in this election.
2018
- See also: Arkansas Supreme Court elections, 2018
General runoff election
General runoff election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 3
Incumbent Courtney Rae Hudson defeated David Sterling in the general runoff election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 3 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Courtney Rae Hudson (Nonpartisan) | 55.7 | 463,631 | |
| David Sterling (Nonpartisan) | 44.3 | 369,283 | ||
| Total votes: 832,914 (100.00% precincts reporting) | ||||
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General election
General election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 3
Incumbent Courtney Rae Hudson and David Sterling advanced to a runoff. They defeated Kenneth Hixson in the general election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 3 on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Courtney Rae Hudson (Nonpartisan) | 37.1 | 113,825 | |
| ✔ | David Sterling (Nonpartisan) | 34.2 | 104,817 | |
| Kenneth Hixson (Nonpartisan) | 28.7 | 87,948 | ||
| Total votes: 306,590 | ||||
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2016
- See also: Arkansas Supreme Court elections, 2016
Goodson ran for the chief justice seat on the Arkansas Supreme Court held by Howard Brill. She lost to Arkansas Circuit Court Judge Dan Kemp in the March 1 primary.[4]
| Arkansas Supreme Court, Chief Justice, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Dan Kemp |
57.56% | 344,523 |
| Courtney Hudson Goodson | 42.43% | 253,941 |
| Total Votes (100% Reporting) | 598,464 | |
| Source: Arkansas Secretary of State Official ResultsSebastian County Arkansas | ||
2010
| Arkansas Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Position 3 2010 General election results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
| Courtney Goodson
|
249,425 | 57.5% | ||
| John Fogleman | 184,280 | 42.5% | ||
- Click here for 2010 General Election Results from the Arkansas Secretary of State.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Courtney Rae Hudson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[5]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[6]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Courtney Rae
Hudson
Arkansas
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of election
Partisan Profile
Details:
Hudson Goodson donated $125 to Republican candidates and organizations. Arkansas was a Republican trifecta at the time of her election.
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Goodson received a campaign finance score of -0.48, indicating a liberal ideological leaning. This was equal to the average score of -0.48 that justices received in Arkansas.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[7]
Noteworthy events
Professional misconduct complaint (2018)
On September 20, 2018, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disciplinary Commission announced charges of ethical misconduct against Arkansas Supreme Court Justices Dan Kemp, Robin Wynne, Courtney Hudson Goodson, Josephine Hart, Karen Baker, and Rhonda Wood. The charges followed a complaint Pulaski County Judge Wendell Griffen filed in April 2017. Griffen alleged the justices did not give him enough time to respond to a ruling removing him from capital punishment cases.[8]
On April 14, 2017, Griffen filed an injunction preventing the execution of seven inmates by capital punishment. He attended a death penalty protest the same day. On April 15, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) asked the state supreme court to reverse Griffen's injunction and remove him from a case involving the death penalty. The supreme court clerk contacted Griffen about Rutledge's request the afternoon of April 15 and gave Griffen until 9 a.m. April 17 to respond. He was removed from the case after failing to respond by the deadline.[9]
The judicial commission said the justices did not provide Griffen with a sufficient amount of time to respond.[9]
State supreme court judicial selection in Arkansas
- See also: Judicial selection in Arkansas
The seven justices on the Arkansas Supreme Court are selected through nonpartisan elections. They compete in nonpartisan general elections—occurring at the same time as the primary elections for other state officials—in which the candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote wins the seat. If no candidate garners a majority of the vote, the top two candidates compete in a runoff during the November general election.[10]
The winners are elected to eight-year terms. Sitting justices must run for re-election at the expiration of their terms.[10]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:[11]
- at least 18 years old;
- a U.S. citizen and state resident;
- licensed to practice law in Arkansas for at least eight years;
- registered to vote; and
- a qualified elector within the geographic area from which chosen.
Chief justice
The court's chief justice is selected by voters at large and serves in that capacity for a full eight-year term.[12]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, an interim judge is selected by the governor to fill the empty seat. If the open seat would have been filled at the next general election if the vacancy did not occur, the appointed justice will serve the remainder of the unexpired term. If the open seat would not have been regularly filled at the next general election, the appointee will serve until the next general election if the vacancy occurred more than four months prior to the election. If the vacancy occurs less than four months prior to the next general election, then the justice will serve until the second succeeding general election.[10]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Arkansas Supreme Court Position 2 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Arkansas Judiciary, "Associate Justice Courtney Rae Hudson, Position 3," accessed June 11, 2021
- ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "2016 Preferential Primary and Nonpartisan General Election Results," accessed June 11, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ Arkansas Judicial Discipline & Disciplinary Commission, "Press release," accessed September 20, 2018
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Talk Business & Politics, "Panel files formal charges against six Arkansas Supreme Court justices over Griffen fight," accessed September 20, 2018
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Arkansas Judiciary, "Arkansas Supreme Court," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Arkansas Judiciary, "Judicial Elections in Arkansas 2021-2022," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Justia, "Arkansas Constitution - Amendment 80 - Qualifications of justices and judges.," accessed March 27, 2023
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Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas
State courts:
Arkansas Supreme Court • Arkansas Court of Appeals • Arkansas Circuit Courts • Arkansas District Courts • Arkansas City Courts
State resources:
Courts in Arkansas • Arkansas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Arkansas
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | |||
| Former |
Jim Hannah • Donald Corbin • Tom Glaze • Jim Gunter • Paul Danielson • Annabelle Imber Tuck • Josephine Hart • William H. Bowen (Arkansas) • Robin Wynne • Ron Sheffield • Cliff Hoofman • Richard Adkisson • Steele Hays • Elana Wills • Howard Brill • Robert L. Brown (Arkansas) • | ||
 |
State of Arkansas Little Rock (capital) |
|---|---|
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