Categories | Lawsuits & Litigation Article

Arkansas Supreme Court Claims City and State Law Discrepancies

February 24th, 2017 • Lawsuits & Litigation • 2 minute read
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Author Sara E. Teller

Arkansas Supreme Court Claims City and State Law Discrepancies

In this day and age, one would think that equal rights is culturally inherent.  Employers are unable to discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age.  A growing body of law is also seeking to include sexual orientation. The diversity of our nation's melting pot is what enables innovation and nurtures development and promotes change.  However, unfortunately, this concept has yet to be accepted by all government bodies.The purpose of Arkansas' Act 137, known as the Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act, is "ensuring that businesses, organization, and employers doing business in the state are subject to uniform nondiscrimination laws and obligations."  Basically, the law seeks to ensure that all businesses are abiding by the same nondiscrimination regulations, and treating their employees equally.  

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The Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state's version "violates the plain wording of Act 137 by extending discrimination laws in the city of Fayetteville to include two classifications not previously included under the state law."  The Court further claims that the other statutes referenced are "unrelated to nondiscrimination laws and obligations and do not create protected classifications or prohibit discrimination on some basis" and calls Act 137 constitutional. Fayetteville's City Attorney, Kit Williams, is prepared to challenge this in the lower court. "They can't, by not using express terms, accomplish the same result which is truly what their intent was, which was to prevent the city from enacting protections for its gay and lesbian residents," he says.  There are other local statutes and ordinances that were not discussed in the case, but are certainly related and could be considered in making the decision.  Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is a gay friendly tourist town that has enacted ordinances prohibiting discrimination against LGBT resort-goers, and the state's capital, Little Rock, has also taken measures to ensure these individuals' rights are protected.

Sources:

LGBT protections in city ordinance struck down by Arkansas Supreme CourtArkansas Supreme Court strikes down city's LGBT protections  
Sara E. Teller

About Sara E. Teller

Sara is a credited freelance writer, editor, contributor, and essayist, as well as a novelist and poet with nearly twenty years of experience. A seasoned publishing professional, she's worked for newspapers, magazines and book publishers in content digitization, editorial, acquisitions and intellectual property. Sara has been an invited speaker at a Careers in Publishing & Authorship event at Michigan State University and a Reading and Writing Instructor at Sylvan Learning Center. She has an MBA degree with a concentration in Marketing and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, graduating with a 4.2/4.0 GPA. She is also a member of Chi Sigma Iota and a 2020 recipient of the Donald D. Davis scholarship recognizing social responsibility. Sara is certified in children's book writing, HTML coding and social media marketing. Her fifth book, PTSD: Healing from the Inside Out, was released in September 2019 and is available on Amazon. You can find her others books there, too, including Narcissistic Abuse: A Survival Guide, released in December 2017.

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