I remember vividly the day that I took the NCLEX exam for my nursing license. I went to the testing station, where the proctors made another woman remove her bun so they could run their hands through her hair to check for cheating. I, having shorter hair, didn't have to do that, but they did check my sweater pockets and made me put my keys and wallet in a locker. It was the biggest professional test of my life, and I passed on the first try.
That being said, I would retake the NCLEX a hundred times than take the bar exam. It's hard, it's exhausting, and a lot is at stake. So when I saw this story out of Arkansas, I was appalled for a variety of reasons.
Nancy Givens, who was the former executive director of the Arkansas Supreme Court's Office of Professional Programs, was arrested on Thursday and charged with 65 counts of tampering with public records. Each charge is a Class C felony. Givens allegedly altered examination scores between July 2020 and July 2025, taking points from some test takers and giving them to others.
This tampering not only impacted who passed and failed, but also gave people access to the legal profession even if they hadn't passed the exam. Court officials even said their investigations found one examinee who should have passed but received a failing score. Another examinee, who legitimately earned the highest score on the exam, had the score reduced.
So apparently the Director of Arkansas professional programs has been altering bar examination scores for several years by taking points from some bar examinees and adding them to other bar examinees pic.twitter.com/D87t2dyjZg
— Bugman Hegel (@FedPoasting) November 5, 2026
After she left the Office of Professional Programs, the Arkansas Supreme Court directed Robert Brech, then executive director of the Office of Professional Conduct, to take over supervision of the office responsible for administering the bar examination.
During his review of the office’s records and operations, Brech discovered that approximately 11,400 electronic files had been deleted or rendered inaccessible, with much of the activity occurring in early January 2026.
Many of those files contained bar examination applications, examinee profiles and score sheets, records the Supreme Court requires to be maintained for 25 years.
According to affidavit details described in published reporting, approximately 8,100 files were restored to a shared drive and examined by Brech.
By comparing recovered records, Brech reportedly discovered discrepancies between the scores examinees actually earned and the results recorded by the office.
The six justices said Brech immediately notified a member of the court, who instructed him to investigate the missing records and determine whether additional irregularities existed.
His review ultimately identified discrepancies spanning at least eight examination administrations between July 2020 and July 2025.
Think about the massive implications of this. There are people practicing law in Arkansas who did not pass the bar who have been practicing law — defending criminals, prosecuting criminals, filing lawsuits — who were not qualified to do so.
According to ABC7, Robert Steinbuch, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, this could impact defendants' constitutional right to effective legal representation.
"What’s the result of that? If someone was convicted of a crime, is the defendant now going to be able to bring a habeas action for ineffective assistance of counsel? This likely wouldn’t be sufficient to achieve that, but it would likely contribute to that fact," said Steinbuch.
What would be fascinating to see is if Givens had the demographic information of examinees, and if she was — given the timing of when it started — driven by DEI animus. I wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Either way, we have even more corruption at the local level that has far-reaching impacts on the lives of others and our criminal justice system. The mess will take years to clean up.
