Alabama Supreme Court

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Alabama Supreme Court
Court information
Justices:	9
Founded:	1819
Judicial selection
Method:	Partisan elections
Term:	6 years
Active justices
Roy Moore  •  Lyn Stuart  •  Michael Bolin  •  Tom Parker  •  Glenn Murdock  •  Greg Shaw  •  Kelli Wise  •  Tommy Bryan  •  James Allen Main  •
Former justices

Founded in 1819 as provided in the state constitution, the Alabama Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort.

Justices

The current justices of the court are:

Judge	Term	Appointed by	Party
Chief Justice Roy Moore	2001-2003; 2013-2018		Republican
Justice Lyn Stuart	2000-2018		Republican
Justice Michael Bolin	2005-2016		Republican
Justice Tom Parker	2004-2016		Republican
Justice Glenn Murdock	2006-2018		Republican
Justice Greg Shaw	2008-2014		Republican
Justice Kelli Wise	2011-2016		Republican
Justice Tommy Bryan	2013-2018		Republican
Justice James Allen Main	2011-2018	Gov. Bob Riley	Republican

Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court has jurisdiction to review the decisions reached by lower courts within the state. It is also authorized to review matters of contention where the dollar amount in question exceeds $50,000 (if no other Alabama court has jurisdiction), review cases over which no other state court has jurisdiction, and appeals from the Alabama Public Service Commission. The Supreme Court has a supervisory role over the other courts in the state and is charged with making rules governing administration, practice and procedure in all courts.

Judicial Selection

See also: Judicial selection in Alabama

All justices on the Alabama Supreme Court are elected for six year terms in partisan elections. The composition of the court consists of eight Associate Justices and one Chief Justice. Vacancies, which can occur when a judge dies, resigns, retires, or is removed from office, are filled by appointments by the governor of Alabama. The justice must run for the seat in the general election at least one year after being appointed.

Qualifications

To be considered a candidate of the Supreme Court, the person must:

• Be licensed to practice law in Alabama.
• Have lived in Alabama for at least one year.
• Be 70 years of age or younger at the time of candidacy.

Removal of justices

Justices can be removed in one of two ways:

• They may be impeached.
• The Judicial Inquiry Commission will investigate complaints against judges and produce a filed complaint with the Court of the Judiciary. This court may censure, suspend, or remove the judge in question. These decisions, however, may be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Caseloads

Fiscal Year	Direct appeals	Writ of certiorari	Writ of mandamus	Miscellaneous	Total
2011	608	712	297	35	1,652
2010	749	913	282	41	1,985
2009	661	757	345	47	1,810
2008	698	696	330	44	1,785
2007	659	722	367	19	1,804

Salaries

The Associate Justices of the court receive $180,005 annually, while the Chief Justice makes $181,127 .

Notable decisions

• ExxonMobil Corp. v. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (2007)

In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court (Justice Cobb dissenting) voided the punitive damages portion of a $3.6 billion jury award against ExxonMobil. The state of Alabama sued ExxonMobil over disputed royalty revenues; compensatory damages were awarded in excess of $100 million, and punitive damages were awarded in the amount of $3.5 billion. The Supreme Court ruled in November 2007 that for the State to be awarded $3.5 billion in punitive damages relating to a fraud claim regarding the disputed royalty fees, the State had to prove 1) Exxon had a duty to disclose material facts that 2) were concealed or not disclosed, which 3) induced the State to act 4) to the State's injury, resulting 5) in actual damage to the State. On this burden the State failed on multiple grounds, necessitating the reversal of the punitive damages.

• Driver exams in Spanish

In a 5-4 decision, the Alabama Supreme Court said the ProEnglish group presented no evidence that administering the test in multiple languages diminishes English as Alabama's common language. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Gov. Bob Riley and other state officials. Writing for the majority, the Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb cited the governor's argument that permitting people with limited English proficiency to take the written portion of the exam in their native language helped them get a license, and the license fostered their assimilation into the community by increasing their access to education, employment and shopping. Four justices — Glenn Murdock, Lyn Stuart, Michael Bolin and Tom Parker — said the case should have gone in favor of the plaintiffs. In Bolin's dissent, he said the majority was misinterpreting the constitutional amendment and that "[t]he immigrants who came to Alabama by way of Ellis Island in the early 20th century did not have the benefit of a tortured construction of Amendment No. 509 and evidently 'assimilated' the wrong way — they actually learned the English language." Judge Michael Bolin added, “What the officials of Alabama have accomplished in offering the written portion of the driver’s license test in 12 foreign languages, is to revise Amendment 509 into a ‘blank paper by [judicial] construction…’” In 1990, Alabama voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that says: "English is the official language of the state of Alabama." The constitutional amendment also says the Legislature "shall enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation," and the Legislature "shall make no law which diminishes or ignores the role of English as the common language of the state of Alabama." Judge Glenn Murdock, joined in the scathing dissent by quoting a standard legal encyclopedia, “Constitutions are the result of popular will, and their words are to be understood ordinarily as used in the sense such words convey to the popular mind.” The state Department of Public Safety currently offers the driver's exam in Arabic, English, Chinese, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese and American sign language.”

• Alabama court sides with governor in budget fight

The Alabama Supreme Court filled a $63 million hole in the state General Fund budget Thursday by siding with Governor Bob Riley in a dispute over use of funds won in a court case. Tuscaloosa businessman Stan Pate had sued the governor, contending Riley erred when he put the money from Exxon Mobil Corp. litigation into the state General Fund. Montgomery County Circuit Judge William A. Shashy sided with Pate in April, holding that the $63 million should go into a state savings account called the Alabama Trust Fund. Without dissent, however, the Supreme Court vacated Shashy's decision and said Pate didn't have legal standing to bring the suit. "Pate's claim of standing as a taxpayer must fail because the Trust Fund receives no tax revenue; it is funded only from royalties from the production of oil and gas under offshore leases," Justice Thomas Woodall wrote. At issue was part of the $121.5 million that the state government received from Exxon Mobil in litigation over natural gas wells the company drilled in state-owned waters along the Alabama coast. Nearly half of the amount was compensatory damages for royalties that weren't paid by the oil company, and the remainder was a penalty. Riley put $58.2 million in compensatory damages into the Alabama Trust Fund, but he put $63.3 million from the penalty into the General Fund to help balance next year's budget during an economic slowdown. Pate's attorneys argued that the state constitution required Riley to put the entire amount into the trust fund to be saved for future generations. The state attorney general's office argued on Riley's behalf that his action was correct. Shashy ruled against Riley as the Legislature was trying to wrap up work on the General Fund budget for next year.

• Alabama's top judge defiant on commandments' display

By the morning of August 21, 2003, Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama was to have removed the 5,280-pound monument of the Ten Commandments that he secretly installed one night in the lobby of the State Supreme Court. A federal judge had ruled that the granite block, known as Roy's Rock, violated the separation of church and state. He had said, "If they want to get the commandments, they're going to have to get me first." Federal officials have decided that fines, not force, are the best way to deal with the monument. Justice Moore lost a last-ditch appeal to the United States Supreme Court, hurtling him head-on into a conflict with a federal judge who has threatened to make him pay $5,000 for every day that the Ten Commandments remain in public view. Judge Myron Thompson of Federal District Court, who presided over this case brought by several civil liberties groups, tried to take the path of least resistance. Nine months prior, Judge Thompson ruled that placing a 4-foot-tall stone block of the Ten Commandments in the court's lobby was "nothing less than an obtrusive year-round religious display." Associate Justice Thomas Woodall of the Alabama Supreme Court discussed the possibility that a majority of judges could vote to remove Justice Moore's administrative power over the building and have the monument carted away. "That has been discussed," Justice Woodall said. "A lot."

History of the court

Alabama Supreme Court building in Montgomery, Alabama

The 1819 Constitution of Alabama, under which the state was admitted to the Union, allowed the powers of the supreme court to be vested in several circuit courts and judges. From 1819 until the reformation constitution in 1868 judges were elected by both houses of the General Assembly. In 1832 the court was revised as a separate entity from the lower courts.

In the wake of the civil war and as part of reconstruction measures the 1868 Reconstruction Constitution was created and judges were to be elected by the populace. Since then judges have been elected in partisan elections.

Notable firsts

• Former Justice Janie Shores was the first woman to serve on the court. She was elected as a Democrat in 1974. With this election, she was also the first female elected judge of an appellate court in the country.
• Former Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb is the first woman elected to the position of Chief Justice in the state of Alabama.
• Justice Oscar William Adams, Jr. was the first African-American to serve on the court. He was appointed by Governor Fob Jones in 1980.

See also

• Alabama
• Alabama Supreme Court elections
• Judicial selection in Alabama
• Alabama judicial news
• News: Moore's latest campaign disclosure reveals heavy donations from plaintiff trial lawyers, July 12, 2012
• News: Despite a balanced 2013 court budget, Alabama Supreme Court Chief warns budget battle not over, July 31, 2012

External links

• Alabama Bar Association
• Alabama Supreme Court
• Alabama judicial system chart
• Alabama Supreme Court Justice Harold See: His Twelve-Year Legacy -- A Special Issue Report (October 2008)
• Staying the Course: An Update on the Alabama Supreme Court by Marc James Ayers (October 2006)
• Fringe Tactics: Special Interest Groups Target Judicial Races
• The Road Back from "Tort Hell": The Alabama Supreme Court, 1994-2004

References

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2012

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Place	Primary Vote	Election Vote
GraddickCharles Graddick	No	Republican	Chief Justice	25.5%
MaloneCharles Malone	Yes	Republican		24.5%
JonesDebra H. Jones	No	Republican	Place 1	34.8%
PoynterGinger Poynter	No	Independent	Chief Justice	n/a	withdrawn%   D
MurdockGlenn Murdock   A	Yes	Republican	Place 3		98.16%   A
LyonHarry Lyon	No	Democratic	Chief Justice		disqualified%   D
MainJames Allen Main   A	Yes	Republican	Place 4		98.13%   A
StuartLyn Stuart   A	Yes	Republican	Place 2		98.13%   A
MaddoxMelinda Lee Maddox	No	Independent	Chief Justice	n/a	D
VanceRobert S. Vance	No	Democratic	Chief Justice		48.23%   D
MooreRoy Moore   A	No	Republican		49.9%A	51.76%   A
BryanTommy Bryan   A	No	Republican		65.1%A	98.07%   A

2010 election

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Seat 1 2010 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Kelli Wise (R)		912,463	62.9%
Rhonda Chambers (D)		537,670	37%

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Seat 2 2010 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Michael Bolin (R)		907,234	62.7%
Tom Edwards (D)		537,966	37.2%

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Seat 3 2010 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Tom Parker (R)		849,323	59%
Mac Parsons (D)		591,678	41%

• Click here for 2010 General Election Results from the Alabama Secretary of State.

Main article: Alabama judicial elections, 2010

2008 Election

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice 2008 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Greg Shaw (R)		1,021,371	50.3%
Deborah Bell Paseur (D)		1,008,479	49.6%

• Click here for 2008 General Election Results from the Alabama Secretary of State.

2006 Election

Alabama Supreme Court, Chief Justice 2006 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Sue Bell Cobb (D)		634,494	51.5%
Drayton Nabers Jr. (R)		596,237	48.4%

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Seat 1 2006 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Thomas Woodall (R)		665,610	56.7%
Gwendolyn Thomas Kennedy (D)		506,691	43.2%

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Seat 2 2006 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Lyn Stuart (R)		680,103	59.4%
Albert L. “Al” Johnson (D)		495,846	40.8%

Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice, Seat 3 2006 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Glenn Murdock (R)		651,057	55%
John England (D)		532,837	45%

• Click here for 2006 General Election Results from the Alabama Secretary of State.