NEWS RELEASE 

JOINT STATEMENT FROM SENATE PRO TEMPORE HICKEY AND HOUSE SPEAKER SHEPHERD

Little Rock, Arkansas (August 13, 2021) –

Arkansas Senate Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey and Arkansas House Speaker Matthew Shepherd released the following statement Friday afternoon regarding McClane, et al v. State of Arkansas, et al :

“Today we jointly retained the law firm of Dover Dixon Horne, PLLC to represent us in our official capacities as the leaders of the Arkansas General Assembly in the pending litigation.

We have conferred with the Attorney General and her staff as we evaluated how best to proceed. We appreciate their representation of us to this point. However, given the number of parties and the potential for multiple conflicts, we believe our interests in this case are best served through retaining separate counsel.

While we understand there are many different opinions as to the specific legislation at issue, the important role of the legislative branch must be preserved among our three, separate but equal, branches of government.”