Delegates to the Arkansas Republican Party convention earlier this summer have sued the party chair and the Secretary of State for refusing to implement changes in the party’s rules, including closed primary elections. (Getty Images)
A simmering rift among Arkansas Republican activists and leaders spilled into federal court on Tuesday with the filing of a civil rights lawsuit against party Chair Joseph Wood and Secretary of State John Thurston.
The plaintiffs claim Wood and Thurston have refused to enforce a new party rule to close the state’s Republican primaries.
Attorneys Luther Sutter and Lucien Gillham of Little Rock filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on behalf of Jennifer Lancaster, chair of the Republican Party of Arkansas State Convention, and 22 other delegates to the party’s biennial convention in June.
The suit claims a violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech and the 14th Amendment’s right to due process. It seeks a declaratory judgment and asks the court to compel the defendants to comply with state and federal law by closing the Republican Party’s primaries and accepting the rules and platform changes adopted at the June convention.