(AP) – The Arkansas Supreme Court is clarifying new ethics
rules for judges after getting complaints that the rules are confusing.
Friday’s clarification includes elimination of a rule that judicial candidates
avoid knowledge of who donates to their campaigns. Legal experts say the rule
was nearly impossible to follow because candidates attend their fundraisers.
The rules also ban candidates from asking for donations that won’t be reported
by the campaign if it’s used “to influence the outcome” of the election. Legal
analysts say that is aimed at organizations known as “dark money” groups that
are not required to identify their donors and have spent hundreds of thousands
of dollars on state Supreme Court elections since 2014.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Chief Justice Howard Brill
declined to comment on the revised rules.
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