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Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Baker vacancy (January 2025)
| Arkansas Supreme Court |
|---|
 |
| Baker vacancy |
| Date: January 1, 2025 |
| Status: Seat filled |
| Nomination |
| Nominee: Nicholas Bronni |
| Date: December 20, 2024 |
On December 20, 2024, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) appointed Nicholas Bronni to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Bronni replaced Justice Karen R. Baker, who ascended to the Chief Justice position on January 1, 2025, following her election win in the November 2024 nonpartisan election. Bronni was Governor Sanders' third nominee to the seven-member supreme court.[1]
In Arkansas, state supreme court justices are elected in nonpartisan elections. There are 13 states that use this selection method. To read more about the nonpartisan election of judges, click here.
In the event of a midterm vacancy, an interim judge is selected by the governor to fill the empty seat. If the open seat would have been filled at the next general election if the vacancy did not occur, the appointed justice will serve the remainder of the unexpired term. If the open seat would not have been regularly filled at the next general election, the appointee will serve until the next general election if the vacancy occurred more than four months prior to the election. If the vacancy occurs less than four months prior to the next general election, then the justice will serve until the second succeeding general election. A justice appointed by the governor to serve an unexpired term is ineligible to run for re-election to their seat.[2]
Ballotpedia has compiled the following resources on the process to fill the Arkansas Supreme Court vacancy:
- An overview of the appointee.
- An overview of the selection process.
- An overview of the court following the vacancy.
- An overview of the justice who left office.
- A list of other state supreme court appointments in 2025.
The appointee
- See also: Nicholas Bronni
On December 20, 2024, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) appointed Nicholas Bronni to the Arkansas Supreme Court.[1]
Bronni previously served as the Solicitor General of Arkansas. Bronni received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He received his undergraduate degree from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.[1]
The selection process
- See also: Judicial selection in Arkansas
In Arkansas, state supreme court justices are elected in nonpartisan elections. There are 13 states that use this selection method. To read more about the nonpartisan election of judges, click here.
Makeup of the court
- See also: Arkansas Supreme Court
Justices
Due to multiple justices being elected to other seats, the following list of justices shows the list of justices and their positions as of November 4, 2024, the day before the 2024 Arkansas Supreme Court elections. Preceding Baker's ascension, the Arkansas Supreme Court included the following members:
| Chief Justice ■ Dan Kemp | Elected in 2016. | |
| Position 2 ■ Cody Hiland | Appointed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) in 2023. | |
| Position 3 ■ Courtney Rae Hudson | Elected in 2010 and 2018. | |
| Position 4 ■ Barbara Webb | Elected in 2020 | |
| Position 5 ■ Shawn Womack | Elected in 2016 | |
| Position 7 ■ Rhonda Wood | Elected in 2014 and 2022 |
About the court
| Arkansas Supreme Court |
|---|
|
| Court Information |
| Justices: 7 |
| Founded: 1836 |
| Location: Little Rock |
| Salary |
| Associates: $203,625[3] |
| Judicial Selection |
| Method: Nonpartisan elections |
| Term: 8 years |
| Active justices |
| Karen R. Baker, Nicholas Bronni, Cody Hiland, Courtney Rae Hudson, Barbara Webb, Shawn Womack, Rhonda Wood |
Founded in 1836, the Arkansas Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort and has seven judgeships. The current chief of the court is Karen R. Baker.
As of January 2025, five judges on the court were elected in nonpartisan elections. Two judges were appointed by a Republican governor.
The Arkansas Supreme Court meets in Little Rock, Arkansas. The court typically sits for a term beginning the first week of September and ending the first week of July.[4]
In Arkansas, state supreme court justices are elected in nonpartisan elections. There are 13 states that use this selection method. To read more about the nonpartisan election of judges, click here.
About Justice Baker
- See also: Karen R. Baker
Baker earned her undergraduate degree from Arkansas Tech University in 1983, and her J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School in 1987.[5]
She was first elected in a special election in 2010 and sworn into office on January 10, 2011.[5][6] Baker served as a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals from 2000 to 2010, and as a judge in the Arkansas Twentieth Judicial District from 1995 to 2000. From 1987 to 1995 Baker was an attorney in private practice.[5] As of March 26, 2014, Baker was a member of the Arkansas Judicial Council and the Van Buren/Searcy County Bar Association where she served as president. Baker was also a member of the Law Journal of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law, and served as a supreme court liaison for the Arkansas Continuing Legal Education Board and the Arkansas Professional Practicum Committee.[5]
Other state supreme court appointments in 2025
- See also: State supreme court vacancies, 2025
The following table lists vacancies on state supreme courts that opened in 2025. Click the link under the Court column for a particular vacancy for more information on that vacancy.
Click here for vacancies that opened in 2024.
| 2025 State Supreme Court Vacancies |
|---|
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Governor of Arkansas, "Governor Sanders Appoints Jester as Secretary of State, Hiland and Bronni to the Supreme Court," December 20, 2024 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "appt" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Arkansas Judiciary, "Arkansas Supreme Court," accessed April 15, 2025
- ↑ The salary of the chief justice may be higher than an associate justice.
- ↑ Arkansas Judiciary, "Arkansas Supreme Court," accessed August 17, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Arkansas Judiciary, "Arkansas Supreme Court, Justices, Arkansas Associate Justice Karen R. Baker, Position 6," accessed March 26, 2014
- ↑ The City Wire, "Justice Karen Baker Seeking Re-Election," January 1, 2014
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Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas
State courts:
Arkansas Supreme Court • Arkansas Court of Appeals • Arkansas Circuit Courts • Arkansas District Courts • Arkansas City Courts
State resources:
Courts in Arkansas • Arkansas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Arkansas
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