GARLAND COUNTY DISTRICT COURT; PROFESSIONAL PROBATION SERVICES, LLC; SOUTHWEST PROBATION SERVICES, INC.; DESIREE SKEYA; AND BRADY HARMON v. JOHN MERCER

── GARLAND COUNTY DISTRICT COURT; PROFESSIONAL PROBATION SERVICES, LLC; SOUTHWEST PROBATION SERVICES, INC.; DESIREE SKEYA; AND BRADY HARMON v. JOHN MERCER ── Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas Date: April 23, 2026 Category: General Cite as 2026 Ark. 76 SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS No. CV-25-319 Opinion Delivered: April 23, 2026 GARLAND COUNTY DISTRICT COURT; PROFESSIONAL APPEAL FROM THE GARLAND PROBATION SERVICES, LLC; COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT SOUTHWEST PROBATION [NO. 26CV-20-656] SERVICES, INC.; DESIREE SKEYA; AND BRADY HARMON HONORABLE DAVID R. GOODSON, APPELLANTS JUDGE AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN V. PART; REMANDED. JOHN MERCER ET AL. APPELLEE SHAWN A. WOMACK, Associate Justice The narrow issue in this interlocutory appeal is whether the Garland County District Court is entitled to sovereign immunity. John Mercer filed this suit after the district court placed him on “probation” and required monthly “probation fees” following two DWI convictions—sanctions he alleges Arkansas law does not permit. On that basis, he asserts an illegal-exaction claim under article 16, section 13 of the Arkansas Constitution, a federal due-process claim, and a state due-process claim under the Arkansas Civil Rights Act. The district court moved to dismiss on sovereign-immunity grounds. The circuit court denied that motion in its entirety, and this interlocutory appeal followed. We affirm the denial of dismissal as to the illegal-exaction and federal claims. We reverse and dismiss the Arkansas Civil Rights Act claim.  I. Facts and Procedural Background John Mercer was charged with two DWI offenses in Garland County on March 13, 2017, and April 10, 2017, under the Omnibus DWI Act. On September 26, 2018, he pled no contest to both charges in the Garland County District Court. 1 The district court imposed fines and costs and required alcohol-education programming. The sentencing orders also placed Mercer on at least six months of probation, required him to pay a $25 monthly probation fee, and subjected him to conditions including random drug and alcohol testing. The record reflects that Mercer made probation-fee payments on November 15, 2018; March 7, 2019; July 26, 2019; August 30, 2019; and October 18, 2019. On May 26, 2020, Mercer filed suit in circuit court on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals against the Garland County District Court. He alleges that the probation and associated fees imposed in his DWI cases were not authorized by law and therefore constituted an illegal exaction. Specifically, he claims that the circuit court sentenced him to probation as punishment and forced him to pay a related monthly fee for the same in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated sections 5-4-301(a)(1)(D) and 5-4- 322(b)(1). He also asserts federal and state due-process claims. Mercer alleges under the Arkansas Civil Rights Act that the district court, acting under color of state law, deprived him of property without legal authority by imposing and collecting probation fees not permitted in DWI cases. Likewise, he raises a parallel federal due-process claim, asserting that the imposition of probation conditions and fees beyond what Arkansas law allows 1 Case no. HTS-17-1827 and HTS-17-2621. 2 deprived him of property—and threatened his liberty through enforcement of those conditions—without due process of law. Mercer seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and repayment of probation fees he contends were collected without legal authority. Mercer filed amended complaints in June and August 2020. On September 16, 2020, the district court moved to dismiss the second amended complaint, asserting sov