The Arkansas Supreme Court issued two opinions on Wednesday striking down a city ordinance that banned discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Both decisions involved challenges to an ordinance, passed by the Fayetteville City Council and approved by the city in a referendum, to extend the protections of the federal Civil Rights Act and the Arkansas Civil Rights Act to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.
The court first issued an opinion on this case in 2017 holding that the Fayetteville ordinance violated the state’s Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act (Act 137), which prevents individual counties and municipalities from enacting their own anti-discrimination protections.
