An update on the Alabama Judicial System

Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore graduated from Etowah High School in Attalla, Alabama, in 1965, and from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1969. He served in the U.S. Army as a company commander with the Military Police Corps in Vietnam. Chief Justice Moore completed his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1977.

During his legal career, Chief Justice Moore became the first full-time Deputy District Attorney in Etowah County, Alabama, and served in this position from 1977 until 1982. In 1984, Chief Justice Moore undertook private practice of law in Gadsden, Alabama.

In 1992, Chief Justice Moore became a judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama and served until his election as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000. In 2003, Chief Justice Moore was removed from his position by a judicial panel for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument that he installed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building to acknowledge the sovereignty of God.

From 2003 until 2012, Chief Justice Moore served as President of the Foundation for Moral Law in Montgomery, speaking throughout the country and filing amicus curiae briefs regarding the United States Constitution in Federal District Courts, State Supreme Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeal and the United States Supreme Court. 

Chief Justice Moore was overwhelmingly re-elected by a vote of the people of Alabama as Chief Justice in November of 2012 and took office in January of 2013. He and his wife Kayla have four children and three grandchildren. They are members of First Baptist Church in Gallant, Alabama.

The Supreme Court of Alabama is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices. As the highest state court, the Supreme Court has both judicial and administrative responsibilities.

The Supreme Court has authority to review decisions rendered by the other courts of the state. It also has authority to determine certain legal matters over which no other court has jurisdiction and to issue such orders necessary to carry out its general superintendence over the courts in Alabama. The Alabama Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over all appeals where the amount in controversy exceeds $50,000 and appeals from the Alabama Public Service Commission.

The chief justice is the administrative head of the state’s judicial system. The Supreme Court may make rules governing administration, practice, and procedure in all courts. Under this authority, rules of practice and procedure and judicial administration have been adopted to eliminate many of the technicalities which cause delay in the trial courts and needless reversals in the appellate courts.