(CN) – As Alabama voters head to the polls on Super Tuesday to choose candidates up and down the ticket, those filling out Republican ballots will decide who will fill a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court.
Two seats on the high court are up for reelection this year and the Democratic Party did not qualify a judge for either position. And while one judge is running unopposed, Justice Brad Mendheim, the race for the second seat could have implications for the court’s future.
The election comes at a time when a federal judge recently determined the way Alabama elects its judges – through statewide, partisan elections – does not violate the Voting Rights Act.
Will voters pick the newcomer, state Senator Cam Ward? The lawmaker who led the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee for 10 years said he’ll bring an understanding of the legislature to the job so the two branches could work together more smoothly.
Or will Alabamians stay with incumbent Justice Greg Shaw? The judge who spent 12 years on the bench and most of his legal career in the state appellate court system says he will help pass along institutional memory to a court filling with fresh faces.
The effect of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decisions is far-ranging. For instance, last June the high court heard oral arguments and in December decided that Alabama courts are a proper venue to hear lawsuits brought by two cities alleging rug manufacturers in Georgia contaminated the river bringing them their drinking water. The justices are currently deliberating over another case with implications over the interpretation of the ethics statues governing public servants across the state.
Judicial elections are different than the typical race for a lawmaker. Ethics rules forbid Alabama candidates from talking about past and future decisions, for instance.
Shaw said a stable and consistent judicial system is key to attracting business to a state. He’s seeking a third term because four new justices have filled out the bench over the last few years.
“I have very specific conservative beliefs about various things like the doctrine of the separation of powers, stare decisis, or statutory construction, and I feel like my knowledge in those areas is something that I can pass along to the younger justices and judges so that we have and keep predictability and stability in the Alabama Supreme Court,” he said in a phone interview.
Shaw, when not working through decisions, keeps a hobby farm with pigmy goats and bees. He’s a journeyman beekeeper.
In a commercial released Feb. 17, he’s shown hauling hay and firing an over-under shotgun while the ad describes him as “Trump tough.”