Page:Mendoza v. WIS International, Inc.pdf/18

 plainly stated invitation for the legislature to input substantive law. I submit that neither violates the separation-of-powers clause.

In Bedell v. Williams, 2012 Ark. 75, 386 S.W.3d 493, this court held that the legislature did not violate the separation-of-powers clause when it created by statute, Arkansas Code Annotates section 16-114-207(3), a privilege to not testify at a trial involving certain matters. The Bedell court held that an equivalent clause in Rule 501 of the Arkansas Rules of Evidence, "Except as otherwise provided by constitution or statute," justified the legislature's creation of the privilege as a specific grant of authority. The majority's effort to distinguish the case before us falls well short. In both instances, the net result is that there will be no evidence presented for a particular purpose.

In my view, section 27-37-703 is also like our rape-shield law, codified at Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-42-101: "(b) In any criminal prosecution under § 5-14-101 et seq. or § 5-26-202, or for criminal attempt to commit, criminal solicitation to commit, or criminal conspiracy to commit an offense defined in any of those sections, opinion evidence, reputation evidence, or evidence of specific instances of the victim's prior sexual conduct with the defendant or any other person, evidence of a victim's prior allegations of sexual conduct with the defendant or any other person, which allegations the victim asserts to be true, or evidence offered by the defendant concerning prior allegations of sexual conduct by the victim with the defendant or any other person if the victim denies making the allegations is not admissible by the defendant, either through direct examination of any defense witness or through cross-examination of the victim or other prosecution witness, to attack the credibility of the victim, to prove consent or any other defense, or for any other purpose."

This court has upheld the constitutionality of section 16-42-101. Sera v. State, 341 Ark. 415, 17 S.W.3d 61 (2000), ''cert. denied'', 531 U.S. 998. In short, the rape-shield law, like section