Alabama
#Alabama#
##Justices##
- Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb – Chief Justice since 2007, term expires 2014 (D)
- Associate Justice Champ Lyons, Jr. – Term expires 2012 (R)
- Associate Justice Thomas Woodall – Term expires 2012 (R)
- Associate Justice Lyn Stuart – Term expires 2012 (R)
- Associate Justice Patricia Smith – Term expires 2010 (R)
- Associate Justice Michael Bolin – Term expires 2010 (R)
- Associate Justice Tom Parker – Term expires 2010 (R)
- Associate Justice Glenn Murdock – Term expires 2012 (R)
- Associate Justice Greg Shaw – Elected 2008, term expires 2012 (R)
##About the court##
The Alabama Court is partisan with a Republican majority. Terms are 6 years. The next election cycle is 2010. The Court has been dominated by Republicans for the past decade, with every Justice between 2000 and 2006 a member of the GOP. This was engineered in part by Karl Rove, who was brought in by the business community to engineer a conservative, pro-business takeover.
The pro-corporate hold on this Court was broken in 2006 with election of Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, who defeated sitting Chief Justice Drayton Naybors, appointed Chief Justice by Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican. This race was the most expensive in history, with Naybors out-raising Cobb $4.9 million to $2.6 million. With the election of Cobb there now exists a a national leader working to change an electoral system that allows the courts to be controlled by those who have the most money.
With three judicial elections scheduled for Alabama in 2010, there will be multiple opportunities for the DJCC to bring greater consumer representation to the bench. Pro-business groups such as the Alabama Business Council, composed primarily of energy and manufacturing interests, can be expected to ally with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to raise large sums of money to support the campaigns of Republican candidates. The Democratic candidates are getting organized now, and fundraising plans are being implemented, however, they will not be able to match the outside dollars that will be spent against them. The DJCC has established the necessary PACs and will have a bank account ready to counter the inevitable smear campaigns and put the Republican candidates on the defensive.