Judge recuses from optometrist group’s case
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray on Friday recused from considering a lawsuit filed by an optometrists group that wants a judge to bar Secretary of State John Thurston from certifying a proposed referendum on a 2019 law that allows optometrists to conduct a wider range of eye surgeries.
The case was assigned to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, according to the Pulaski County clerk’s office.
Gray could not be reached for comment by telephone Friday afternoon about why she recused.
The Arkansans for Healthy Eyes committee and its chairwoman, Vicki Farmer, filed the lawsuit Thursday against Thurston and the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee. The Safe Surgery committee is promoting the proposed referendum, which if certified would appear on the Nov. 3 election ballot. Voters would decide whether to remove the 2019 law.
The lawsuit was filed shortly after the state Supreme Court on Thursday declined a request from the Healthy Eyes committee for the high court to rehear its Dec. 12 ruling directing Thurston to count all the signatures collected by the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee.
Documents from the secretary of state’s office indicate that the Safe Surgery Arkansas committee submitted 64,028 valid signatures of registered voters, according to the committee. The committee’s petitions need 53,491 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Kenneth Burleson, chief legal counsel for the secretary of state, said that before certifying the referendum for the ballot, Thurston will wait until after Griffen rules on the Healthy Eyes committee’s request for a temporary restraining order that would block him from doing so.
The Healthy Eyes committee’s lawsuit asks Griffen to immediately and permanently prohibit Thurston from counting signatures, certifying signatures or taking any other action regarding the proposed referendum. The lawsuit also asks for the judge to declare that the eye surgery law — Act 579 of 2019 — was effective on July 24 of last year and remains in effect.