October 5, 1999
The Honorable Olly Neal
Arkansas Court of Appeals
Justice Building
625 Marshall Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
RE: Advisory Opinion # 99-08
Dear Judge Neal:
In your request for an opinion dated September 1, 1999, you stated
that you were a sitting judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, and that you intend to
seek election to that court in the year 2000. You have proposed sending selected residents
of the district that elects you to the Court of Appeals, a certain letter attached to your
request. We gather from your request and that letter, that you would plan to send it in
the near future.
The letter you have proposed purports to be informational only in
order to inform the voters that there are two positions open, and that you and the
Honorable Mauzy Pittman are not opponents. This letter comes very close to being a
political letter, but since its primary purpose seems to be to inform the voters that
there are two positions from this district, we have determined that it does not fall
within the prohibited political activity addressed in Canon 5.
See Arkansas Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee Advisory Opinion
# 95-04.
Our Committee does recommend that you omit the names of deceased
members of your family from the letterhead, and that your quotation on your letterhead,
"Influence Shared Is Influence Expanded" be deleted.
Very truly yours,
Judge Edwin Alderson
For the Committee
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