ARKANSAS, USA — Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, which allow anyone to request government documents, is not part of the state’s constitution.

A group of residents working under the name Arkansas Citizens for Transparency (ACT) want to see these FOIA laws protected by putting them into the state’s constitution.

But first, they have to send their proposal amendments that would change the constitution to Arkansas’ attorney general, Tim Griffin, who checks to see if the wording is legally sound and also not confusing. 

Once the attorney general approves it, this group’s proposed changes will go before voters. But only if the group can collect enough signatures from Arkansans to get it on the ballot first.

“It’s a big task to get 90,000 signatures, we feel very confident because we’ve got a bipartisan group here. We’ve got Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, folks across the board who are demanding transparency in Arkansas’ government,” Joey McCutchins, a government transparency advocate and lawyer in Fort Smith, said. 

This past September, state lawmakers took up these FOIA laws at the request of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Lawmakers handed her a scaled-back version of what changes she wanted to see to FOIA. The main change? That details around the governor’s security would be protected from the public making document requests around it. 

Fast forward to this week, Attorney General Tim Griffin cleared the way for the transparency group to collect signatures. 

If they get enough, voters will decide this November if government transparency should be a part of Arkansas’ constitution, and also give more protection to FOIA so that state lawmakers can’t keep changing it. 

McCutchins adds, “I think we need to hear from the ballot question committee, I know that they will, they will form a plan that they think’s in the best interest of Arkansas citizens and in the best interest of our right to know”

But on Thursday, Griffin rejected the other proposal the group is pushing to have go before voters, a transparency commission that would hold local governments and the state government accountable if they do not comply with FOIA requests. 

Earlier this week, the group sued Griffin, frustrated by the number of times he has rejected their proposals. 

“The committee decided to sue Tim Griffin in his capacity as Attorney General, and asked the supreme court to issue a mandatory injunction to may make Attorney General Griffin either certify the question or substitute his own language,” McCutchins said.

Now that the commission proposal has been rejected, the group is meeting this week to figure out their next steps.

“We can’t wait any longer. We need to, we want to take this to the people,” McCutchins adds. “The people are, by all accounts, by the turnout at townhall meetings are ready to get this process started.”

Attorney General Tim Griffin explained his side in a statement, rejecting the commission proposal because of misleading language saying, “The FOIA opinions issued today were drafted over a week ago and have been working their way through the review process and following the standard timeline. Regardless of the timing, it is illegal for us to negotiate for a particular opinion result or consider external factors or my personal opinion. We follow the law each and every time.”

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