Jackie's out of the office today, and I've seen a few postings about
Catt v. State, so I thought I might share an update on this case.
The Arkansas Supreme Court hands down its opinions on Monday,
and when April 1 fell on Monday, Justice George Rose Smith would
issue an April Fools opinion to be published in the Arkansas Advance
Reports.
April 1 was on Monday this year, and it seemed like everyone in the
Justice Building took some time to remember Justice Smith, who passed
away a couple of years ago. It wasn't quite the same without his
April Fools opinion.
Well, on Tuesday, April 2, the Clerk of the Courts received a call from a law
clerk in Delaware regarding Catt v. State. He forwarded the call to
Jackie Wright, the librarian. The clerk explained that they had
cited Catt in one of their opinions, and West returned the opinion
informing the court that Catt was not a citable opinion. She called
us to get some authority for this.
Jackie told her that it was an April Fools opinion and was not
supposed to have been published in SW2d. The clerk wasn't sure what
the court would do about the opinion.
After she got off the phone, she came into my office and exclaimed,
"Delaware cited Catt v. State! If only she had called yesterday."
The Delaware case is State v. Willis, 1995 WL 717626 (Del. Super.
11/21/95).
I wonder what Justice Smith would think.
We're still smiling. :)
Tim Holthoff
Assistant Librarian
Arkansas Supreme Court Library
tnholthoff@athena.ualr.edu
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