The Arkansas state supreme court turned conservative for the first time in history this week as Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) appointed close ally Cody Hiland, a former prosecutor and U.S. attorney, to the court following the death of longtime Democrat Justice Robin Wynne at age 70.

“I am pleased to announce that I have selected another former prosecutor and a U.S. Attorney, Cody Hiland, for this role,” Sanders said during a press conference at the Arkansas State Capitol, during which she honored the life and service of "legal titan" Wynne.

Sanders said Hiland will bring “a lifetime of legal experience to the job from his early days as a staff attorney in state government and an aide to my dad, who is also here today.”

"Under his leadership, the office produced an unprecedented 82% increase in criminal cases in that time," she continued. "…Together, we crafted the Safer, Stronger Arkansas legislative package that I had the privilege of signing this year to clean up the crime on our streets. And after the campaign, our fellow Republicans selected Cody to lead the state party under this new administration."

"Decades of experience"

"It will be impossible to fill Justice Wynne’s shoes on the Supreme Court,” Sanders said, adding that “Cody’s decades of experience, even temperament and love for our state and the rule of law, bring him closer than anyone else could.”

Sanders said Hiland observes the highest loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law.

The governor has begun to implement a conservative agenda in the state, including a recent law that requires people to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex.

Sanders also authorized building a monument to the at least 236,243 babies aborted while Roe V. Wade was in effect. When the precedent was overturned, a law passed in 2019 went into effect that banned all abortions in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother as a result of a medical emergency.

States becoming more powerful

Twenty-seven states have Republican majorities, according to Ballotpedia, and Arkansas will make 28. Only 15 state courts had Democrat majorities, and eight were indeterminate.

Under the U.S. Constitution, all powers not expressly given to the federal government are supposed to reside with the states.

With federal overreach being increasingly checked by the U.S. Supreme Court, state courts will necessarily become more powerful.

This is in keeping with a conservative agenda, in which the federal government is limited.

But the left favors a strong central (federal) government that makes decisions for all the states, something most of the founders did not support.