Верховный суд штата Алабама: история и современность

Highest court in the U. S. state of Alabama

The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six year terms. The Supreme Court is housed in the Heflin Torbert Judicial Building in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. The Governor of Alabama may fill vacancies when they occur for the remainder of unexpired terms. The current line up for the court is all Republican. There is no specific limitation on the number of terms to which a member may be elected. However, the state constitution under Amendment 328, adopted in 1973, prohibits any member from seeking election once they reach age 70. The current Clerk of Court is Margaret "Megan" Byrne Rhodebeck, who assumed the office by appointment on August 1, 2022.

The Supreme Court of Alabama was organized under the governorship of William Wyatt Bibb, and had its beginnings with the Alabama Constitution of 1819, which stated that until the General Assembly deemed otherwise, the functions of the Supreme Court would be handled by the judges of the Alabama circuit courts. The circuit judges were elected by a joint vote of both houses of the Alabama Legislature. These judges met in May 1820 in the capital city of Cahaba for the first term of the Supreme Court. Clement Comer Clay was appointed by the other judges as the first chief justice of the court. Following his resignation in 1823, he was succeeded by Abner Smith Lipscomb. The court was then reorganized in 1832. It then became a separate court with three justices elected to six year terms. Abner Lipscomb remained as chief justice. In 1851 the number of justices was increased to five. In 1853 the membership of the court was reduced to three again. No changes to the court occurred during the years of the Civil War. Legislative Act Number 602, 1969 Alabama Acts was passed during Regular Session of 1969. It increased the number of associate justices to eight, bringing the number of court justices to the configuration that remains today. Former Justice Janie L. Shores was the first of six women to serve on the court. She was elected to the court in 1974. The first of three black justices to serve on the court was former Justice Oscar W. Adams Jr., who in 1980 was initially appointed by then Governor Fob James to serve the remainder of an unexpired term. Justice Adams became the first black justice elected to the court when he was elected two years later to serve a full six year term.

In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine that frozen embryos were "extrauterine children" and thus were legally children in the State of Alabama. In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Tom Parker discussed the issue "theologically", writing that "human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God", as "even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory". The court's ruling has led three major Alabama medical providers to discontinue in vitro fertilisation treatment because of legal uncertainty created by the decision. The ruling was described by the U. S. President Joe Biden as "outrageous and unacceptable". Former President Trump said he “strongly supports the availability of IVF" and called on lawmakers in Alabama to preserve access to IVF.