UPDATED: Ivey appoints Stuart to chief justice

Published 6:30 am Thursday, April 27, 2017

On the same day suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore announced his intentions to run for U.S. Senate, Gov. Kay Ivey appointed Lyn Stuart as Moore’s replacement.

Stuart had been serving as acting chief justice since May 6 when ethics charges against Moore led to his suspension. On Sept. 30, the Court of the Judiciary suspended Moore for the rest of his term.

Stuart’s appointment to the post makes her the first female Republican chief justice in Alabama’s history.

“Chief Justice Stuart has served with honor and integrity on the high court for more than 16 years. I look forward to working with her as she now leads the judicial branch of state government,” Ivey said in a statement. “I also thank Roy Moore for his years of public service to the people of Alabama and wish him the best in the next step of his journey.

About Stuart

Raised in Atmore, Stuart graduated from Auburn University in 1977 and the University of Alabama School of Law in 1980. She worked for the Alabama attorney general’s office after graduating. Charles Graddick, a Mobile judge who served as Alabama attorney general from 1979 to 1987, told the Montgomery Advertiser in October she did appellate work for his office, and that Stuart and his other hires “made me look better.”

“I found her to be extremely bright and capable and efficient, and was frankly very happy that I hired her when I interviewed her,” he said.

Stuart won election as a district judge in Baldwin County in 1988. Gov. Fob James appointed her as a circuit judge in the county in 1997. Three years later, she ran for the Alabama Supreme Court.

In a response to a Montgomery Advertiser candidate questionnaire in 2000 during that campaign, Stuart wrote that her “work with juveniles and families” were part of her qualifications for the job.

“If we can prevent a young person or family from getting in trouble in the first place, we might keep them out of the court system and out of trouble with the law for a lifetime,” Stuart wrote.

Stuart has amassed a conservative voting record on the court. In 2001, she concurred in a decision to not allow a teenager to get an abortion without a parent’s consent. In 2007, Stuart was one of four justices who dissented from a ruling allowing Alabama to give its driver’s license test in multiple languages and joined another decision that year which struck down $3.5 billion in punitive damages awarded to the state against ExxonMobil over a dispute about natural gas in Mobile Bay.

Stuart concurred in the 2015 API decision where the Alabama Supreme Court stopped the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade striking down the state’s bans on same-sex marriage earlier that year. But Stuart, with her colleagues, voted in March to dismiss all pending motions in the case in March following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down state bans on same-sex marriage.

Stuart raised $1.2 million in her 2000 race for the Supreme Court, much of it coming from business groups. Progress PAC, affiliated with the Business Council of Alabama, gave her more than $200,000 that year. She raised $1.6 million for her re-election campaign in 2006, with business groups again making large contributions. She was unopposed for re-election in 2012.

Parker to seek chief justice post

In other Alabama Supreme Court news Wednesday, Republican Justice Tom Parker issued a statement saying he would seek the chief justice seat in the 2018 election.

Parker has served on the supreme court for 12 years. In referencing Moore, Parker said the former chief justice as “unlawfully removed” from office.

“Alabama is a conservative state. We revere the Constitution and the Rule of Law. And I believe our courts are the battleground for our God-given rights as free people,” Parker said in a statement. “Please pray with me as I take this step, and thank you for standing with me as I continue to stand for the God-given principles that remain the foundation of the freedoms we cherish as Alabamians.”

— Bryan Lyman of the Montgomery Advertiser contributed to this report.