In 1896 he was nominated by the Democratic state convention and elected that September where he served eight years. In the early 1900s, he was involved with a confrontation with then-Attorney General Jeff Davis after Davis started removing his coat and Bunn criticized him for that, saying "a gentleman would not appear in his shirt sleeves before the Supreme Court". Later, Davis retorted to audiences, asking if he could remove his coat because the "five jackasses" at the Supreme Court would not allow it. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Gazette praised Bunn for his "ability as a jurist and for his honesty and integrity". This was not the first time Bunn and Davis caused a stir, the previous year in 1903, Bunn was the lone naysayer involving Davis's veto of over 300 bills. In 1904, he opened and operated a private law practice with W. E. Patterson until Bunn's death in 1908. On September 6, 1865, he married Louisa E. Holmes, daughter of Colonel W. T. M. Holmes killed in the Confederate War. With her death on July 5, 1866, he married Aralee Connolly, also a daughter of a Confederate Army soldier, with whom he had nine children but only five survived. Bunn was buried at Oakland Cemetery in Camden, Arkansas. References Godspeed Publishing Co 1889. Quachita County, Arkansas. History of Arkansas. Arkansas State Library and Archives. External links NCPedia Ancestry records 1838 births 1908 deaths Davidson College alumni Arkansas state senators Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court Confederate States Army officers People from Rocky Mount, North Carolina Chief Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges