Ignoring the Voters: Alabama commission dissolves judicial seat won by
Black woman
[link removed]
Esther Schrader | Read the full piece here
[link removed]
Friend,
The rain was coming down in sheets the day Tiara Young Hudson won the
Democratic primary for circuit court judge in the Alabama county she
has long served as a public defender. Voters were undeterred.
When the ballots were counted in Jefferson County, the most populous
and most diverse in the state, they showed that more than 31,000
people had braved the storm to vote in the primary on that day in May.
Fifty-four percent of them chose Hudson.
With no Republican challenger in the race, the outcome was tantamount
to victory for Hudson in the general election in November. The
attorney, wife, mother and dedicated churchgoer rejoiced, thanking her
family and God in a public Facebook post.
Hudson was on track to be the first public defender to serve as a
judge on the Jefferson County circuit court, and the first Black woman
with a background as a public defender to serve on the bench anywhere
in Alabama.
The celebration was short-lived.
Just over two weeks later a state commission, divided along racial
lines, dissolved the judgeship Hudson had effectively won.
First, Circuit Judge Clyde Jones resigned from the seat, eight days
after the May 24 primary and seven months before the end of his term.
That gave the Judicial Resources Allocation Commission (JRAC) -
created by Alabama's Republican-dominated Legislature in 2017
- the opportunity to consider transferring his seat.
The next week, the commission voted to permanently relocate the seat
from Jefferson County, where the crime rate is the highest in Alabama,
to majority-white Madison County. All three Black members of the
commission voted against transferring the judgeship. All eight white
members voted in favor.
The chairman of JRAC called the move a simple matter of filling a need
in Madison County. But the transfer of the judgeship, the first by the
commission since it was created, has been met with overwhelming
objections. At a JRAC meeting before the vote, members of the public
testified that the move strips a county with a substantial Black
population of a critical resource and gives that resource to a county
where white people comprise nearly 70% of the population (as opposed
to 48% in Jefferson County).
Last month, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Alabama filed a lawsuit
[link removed]
on behalf of Hudson to challenge the constitutionality of the
transfer.
Underlying the case is a question that goes to the heart of the
SPLC's mission: By stripping a judgeship from the state's
largest metropolitan area, where criminal cases are numerous and
complex, is an injustice being done? And is this new commission being
weaponized to shuffle judgeships in such a way that diverse
communities lack fair representation in the judiciary?
"This goes back to the people's power to have
representation. It goes to the power of voting," said Ahmed
Soussi, voting rights staff attorney for the SPLC. "Judges are
elected by the people in Alabama, and we believe the constitution
states that only the Legislature decides how many judges can be in a
specific area. JRAC doesn't represent the people. It is this
niche state agency that is making this first big move. We want to
challenge this right away, because we believe this is
unconstitutional, and we want to make sure that no other judges are
removed unconstitutionally. If we don't, what will stop JRAC
from taking all the judges out of Jefferson County?"
According to the complaint, the decision to eliminate Jefferson
County's Tenth Judicial Circuit, Place 14 judgeship and
permanently relocate the seat to the Twenty Third Judicial Circuit in
Madison County violates the Alabama Constitution. The state
constitution, the plaintiffs argue, gives only the Legislature -
not a commission created by it, unelected and unaccountable to voters
- the authority to reallocate judgeships. The white members of
the commission have made multiple attempts to transfer judgeships from
Jefferson County to Madison County, but unsuccessfully until now,
according to the complaint.
At an Aug. 8 hearing, attorneys for the SPLC and the ACLU of Alabama
asked a judge to issue a preliminary injunction
[link removed]
to immediately block the commission's decision.
On Aug. 12, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Jimmy B. Pool
dismissed the lawsuit
[link removed]
on the basis that the plaintiff did not use the correct procedure to
remove a sitting judge from office under these circumstances. As a
result, the judgeship will remain in Madison County unless a higher
court overrules Pool's decision.
"We are disappointed that the court refused to step in and
prevent this unconstitutional removal of a circuit court judgeship
from Birmingham," Soussi said. "The community of Jefferson
County deserves fair representation on the bench and access to a court
system with the full resources to serve them, but they are being
denied both by Alabama's current system."
READ MORE
[link removed]
In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.
Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
justice and equity in courts and combat white supremacy?
DONATE
[link removed]
--
Unsubscribe [link removed] | Privacy Policy [link removed] | Contact Us [link removed]
Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36104
334.956.8200 // splcenter.org
[link removed]
Copyright 2022
