The attorney challenging U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville’s eligibility to run for governor said he believes a “majority” of the nine-member Alabama Supreme Court will recuse themselves if the residency case reaches the court on appeal.
Barry Ragsdale made the comments on a recent episode of “Alabama Politics This Week.” Asked whether anything could guarantee the justices step aside, he said, “absolutely not.”
“It will be at the discretion of the justices, and they will make the decision about whether or not they want to stay in the case or don’t want to stay in the case,” Ragsdale said.
“I know all of the members of the Alabama Supreme Court, some of them very well. I practice before that court regularly and argue before that court numerous times. I have confidence – let me try to be delicate – I have confidence in a majority of them doing the right thing, and frankly, most of them doing the right thing.”
If a majority of the nine-member court recuses, the case would be heard by a special court of retired judges and justices. Ragsdale said that is the outcome he wants.
“I think that court ought to recuse itself and have a special court appointed,” he said. He cited the justices’ political ties to Tuberville as the reason. “Most of those folks will have politic with, hung around with, and buddied up with Senator Tuberville, just because of the nature of elected Republican officials in this state,” he said.
Ragsdale said the case should not be decided by justices who must run in a Republican primary in the coming cycles. He said the procedure has precedent.
“Now, that may sound strange to you, but I’ve had three or four cases where exactly that has occurred,” Ragsdale said. “Cases involving Roy Moore, for example, when he had been on the court with members of the court, they all correctly stepped aside, and a special court of retired judges and justices was appointed.”
Tuberville is represented by Joe Espy, staging a showdown between some of Alabama’s most formidable trial attorneys.
Three prior challenges to Tuberville’s bid for governor have already been dismissed – one by a Covington County judge for lack of jurisdiction, and two by the Alabama Republican Party, the latter unanimously. Earlier still, opponents branded him a “carpetbagger” as early as 2019 in his bid for U.S. Senate.
Now seven years later from those initial public charges, Secretary of State Wes Allen and Tuberville’s attorneys have both moved to dismiss the case, arguing the courts lack jurisdiction to decide a nominee’s qualifications before the general election. Montgomery Circuit Judge Brooke E. Reid has set a hearing on those motions for later today.
An appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court — the final venue — is the expected next step.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
