PER CURIAM ORDER

In the Matter of the Ninetieth Birthday of The Honorable Ernie E. Wright. See per curiam this date. (3 PAGES PUBLISHED) [HTML, WP5.1]

On the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, the Supreme Court takes the opportunity to salute and offer congratulations to Judge Ernie E. Wright. In his long and distinguished career, Judge Wright has served, either through election or by appointment, as a Chancellor, a Special Circuit Judge, a Court of Appeals Judge, and a Supreme Court Special Justice.

When Judge Wright was born, on October 31, 1915, the Great War was raging abroad, President Wilson sat in the White House, and the Kaiser and the Tsar believed their thrones secure. The first transcontinental telephone conversations were held in that year, as well as the first radio-telephone communications between Europe and the United States. In 1915, the Victor Talking Machine Company introduced the Victrola phonograph, changing the concept of home entertainment; Hollywood released The Birth of a Nation, transforming the potential of a new art form; and Ford produced its one-millionth Model T, altering forever the landscape of America.

Judge Wright has lived through nearly a century's worth of revolutions in politics, technology, science, fashion, literature, art, music, and mores. In his ninety years he has witnessed change upon change, and yet he has remained constant in his character as a dutiful son, a devoted husband, a proud father, a distinguished scholar, and a dedicated servant of the law and the public good. From his early efforts, against adversity, to achieve an education, through all the honors he has received from governors and his profession, Judge Wright has demonstrated the simple power of integrity at every step in his career.

Judge Wright enjoyed a successful career in the private practice of law in Mountain Home and, later, in Harrison. He has served as City Attorney for Mountain Home; Deputy Prosecutor for Baxter County; Prosecuting Attorney for the Sixteenth Circuit; and Chancellor, for twenty-one years and ten months, for the eleventh Chancery Circuit, comprising Baxter, Boone, Marion, Newton, Searcy, and Van Buren counties. In 1979, Governor Bill Clinton appointed him to lead the newly created Arkansas Court of Appeals as its first Chief Judge.

After his year-and-a-half tenure with the Court of Appeals, Judge Wright resumed his law practice in Harrison, but he has been called upon repeatedly to assume the duties of a Special Circuit Judge, a Special Judge on the Court of Appeals, and a Special Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court. Judge Wright served as an Arkansas Supreme Court Special Justice in the landmark case challenging the constitutionality of the 1992 Initiated Act limiting the terms of state officials and members of Congress. In a 4-3 vote, the court held the Act valid with respect to state officials but in violation of the provisions of the United States Constitution regarding members of Congress. The United States Supreme Court upheld the decision in a 5-4 vote.

Judge Ernie E. Wright, husband of a loving wife, Aline, father of a distinguished poet, Carolyn, and father of a respected mental health and rehabilitation counselor, Warren, has been a champion of our system of justice. It can be said that he has exemplified the ancient Egyptian precept that "a good character is what is remembered." The Supreme Court of Arkansas honors Judge Wright for a life well lived.