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VietnameseGriffin: ‘I took an oath to uphold both the Arkansas and United States Constitutions, which promise equality under the law, regardless of race’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:
“I have sent a letter to Arkansas Ethics Commission Director Graham Sloan notifying him that I am declining to appoint a new member to the Commission. Arkansas Code Annotated § 7-6-217(b)(1) requires me to ‘ensure that at least one (1) member of a minority race’ serves on the Commission. This requirement is racial discrimination, which is both wrong and unconstitutional.
“There are many Arkansans who are members of a minority race who would be excellent choices to serve on the Ethics Commission. They would be excellent choices because of their character, intelligence, and experience—not simply based on their race.
“I took an oath to uphold both the Arkansas and United States Constitutions, which promise equality under the law, regardless of race. Because the Arkansas statute mandates unconstitutional racial discrimination, I am unable to comply with it while upholding that oath. Therefore, I must decline to make this appointment to the Ethics Commission.
“As the chief legal officer of the State of Arkansas, it is my duty to defend each law that the legislature enacts unless there is no good-faith argument to be made as to the law’s constitutionality. While that is a low bar, this statute fails to clear it. The Constitution, as reiterated in 2023 by the Supreme Court of the United States in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, provides no basis to defend the racial set aside in Arkansas Code Annotated § 7-6-217(b)(1).”
To download a PDF version of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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