LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge applauds the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision to reject the frivolous lawsuit filed by political opponents questioning her constitutional duty to protect and educate Arkansans from con artists and an overreaching federal government. The Court held that Attorney General Rutledge’s litigation and consumer-education efforts challenged by this lawsuit were legal. The Justices reversed every claim against the Attorney General before the Supreme Court and effectively ordered the circuit court to dismiss what remains.
“While I am pleased as Arkansas’s chief legal officer that the Supreme Court rejected this frivolous stunt of a lawsuit by my political opponents, I am frustrated that my office was forced to spend precious resources defending our lawful duty to carry out our statutory job responsibilities,” said Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. “For the last seven and half years, my office has held bad businesses accountable, taken legal actions against the federal government’s illegal mandates, and assisted hundreds of thousands of Arkansans who reached out in need. The Supreme Court’s decision has major implications for every officeholder in the State, and I’m proud of my team for this victory.”
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn in on January 13, 2015, she is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected as Attorney General. She was resoundingly re-elected on November 6, 2018. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud. Further, she has held Rutledge Roundtable meetings and Mobile Office hours in every county of the State each year, and launched a Military and Veterans Initiative. She has led efforts to roll back government regulations that hurt job creators, fight the opioid epidemic, teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves on committees for Consumer Protection, Criminal Law and Veterans Affairs for the National Association of Attorneys General. She also served as the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for former Governor Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.