Appellate judges have a unique role and a heavy responsibility in our legal system.  They are charged with the responsibility for researching and studying statutes and previous appellate court opinions, analyzing and interpreting those statutes and opinions, and then writing further opinions that (1) not only do justice in the case at hand, but also (2) explain the law so as to make it more readily understandable for future cases.   Before being elected as an appellate judge in 2000, I practiced law for 19 years and also served as an Administrative Law Judge.  My legal education and my work as a constitutional and commercial lawyer for 19 years helped prepare me for the work I have done as an appellate judge and that I am asking the people of Alabama to allow me to continue doing on our Supreme Court.  Moreover, I have served on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, the second highest court in Alabama, for six years now and during that time I have written over 500 published, appellate opinions.  I am humbled and grateful for the support of so many attorneys throughout the state who have read and studied those opinions and who, after doing so, have given me their vote of confidence.  I am particularly gratified to have been voted “Best Qualified” in the only poll taken among attorneys in Alabama for this election, the 2006 Mobile County Bar Association Poll.

A. Independence.

A critical issue in electing any judge is whether that judge will be fair and independent minded.  Even the best legal scholarship and analysis are for naught if they are employed to pursue some predetermined end, rather than to follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.  For six years as an appellate judge I have endeavored to do exactly that.

B.  Well grounded, common sense instincts.                                                                                                           

No matter how independent minded a judge may be, and regardless of how well reasoned or scholarly his or her legal opinions may be, there will always be those cases that boil down to basic, common sense judgment calls.  When those cases arise, Alabamians want to know that they have appellate judges in Montgomery who will reflect their conservative values and bring to bear well-grounded, common sense instincts as to what is fair and right. 

C.  Legal skills.

As already noted, appellate judges have a unique role and a heavy responsibility in our legal system.  In essence, they are entrusted with preserving legal principles that in many cases have been worked out over 100’s of years of court decisions.  As new cases arise, appellate judges have responsibility for researching and studying statutes and previous appellate court opinions, analyzing and interpreting those statutes and opinions, and then writing further opinions that (1) not only do justice in the case at hand, but also (2) explain the law so as to make it more readily understandable for future cases. 

My judicial philosophy is a conservative one of applying the law as it is written, without any agenda of my own.  My job as an appellate judge, whether on the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court, is to follow the facts and the law wherever they lead in a given case.

As stated above, perhaps the most critical issue in electing any judge – whether a trial judge or an appellate judge – is whether that judge will be fair and independent minded.   Even the best legal scholarship and analysis are for naught if they are employed to preserve some predetermined end.  When I was running for the Court of Appeals in 2000, I explained to newspaper editors that I would have to be able to look myself in the mirror every morning and know that I had not made any decision in any case the day before that was based on anything other than the facts and the law applicable to that case.  I believe my record for six years as an appellate judge bears out the fact that I have kept that commitment.  I further believe that the support I have received throughout the State bar – including my selection as “Best Qualified” in the recent Mobile Bar Association Poll -- is a recognition of the manner in which I have kept and will continue to keep that commitment.

The greatest need in the Alabama court system continues to be judges who have the courage and the scholarship to decide cases based on the law as it is written, and the facts presented to them, without any favoritism or personal bias or agenda.  In essence, we need judges who display the three attributes described in response to Question No. 2, above.  That is not to say that Alabama judges are not already performing admirably.  It simply is a recognition that we must be ever diligent to maintain the quality and the integrity of our judiciary at every level.

Judges must decide cases based on the facts and the law aplicable to those cases.  Public opinion has a role to play in influencing the policy choices made by our legislature in the first place.  Once those policy choices have been made, however, and the legislature enacts a statute, it is incumbent upon judges simply to apply the resulting law without altering it to comport with their perception of public opinion.

The integrity of our legal system, and the public's support of it, is absolutely dependent on the election of judges who decide cases strictly upon the facts and the law, wherever they may lead.  When there is a conflict between a judge's personal beliefs and the result required under the law, a judge must apply the law.  If the conflict is so geat that a judge cannot objectively decide a case, he or she should recuse himself or herself from that case.