Supreme Court of Alabama

“ The Alabama Constitution provides that any person to whom registration is denied shall have the right of appeal to the Circuit Court. At the trial the solicitor for the state shall appear and defend against the petitioner on behalf of the state. The judge shall charge the jury only as to what constitutes the qualifications to entitle the applicant to become an elector at the time he applied for registration, and the jury shall determine the weight and effect of the evidence and return a verdict. From the judgment rendered an appeal lies to the Supreme Court in favor of the petitioner. ”

“ The State has moved to dismiss this appeal on the ground that the Alabama Supreme Court's judgment is not a 'final judgment' and therefore not appealable under § 1257. [3] The State argues that since the Alabama Supreme Court remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion (which would include a trial) , the Supreme Court's judgment cannot be considered 'final.' This argument has a surface plausibility, since it is true the judgment of the State Supreme Court did not literally end the case. ”

“ Like every capital case, it is one of serious moment. In the state courts and here, consideration must be given to each material issue of fact and law. Both opinions handed down by the Supreme Court of Alabama disclose an appreciation by its members of their constitutional obligations to the petitioner, the State and the nation. ”

“ The supreme court shall make and promulgate rules governing the administration of all courts and rules governing practice and procedure in all courts; provided, however, that such rules shall not abridge, enlarge or modify the substantive right of any party nor affect the jurisdiction of circuit and district courts or venue of actions therein; and provided, further, that the right of trail by jury as at common law and declared by section 11 of the Constitution of Alabama 1901 shall be preserved to the parties inviolate. ”

“ The Lieutenant Governor shall preside over the Senate when sitting as a court of impeachment, provided, however, that if the Governor or Lieutenant Governor is impeached, the Chief Justice, or if the Chief Justice be absent or disqualified, then one of the associate justices of the supreme court, to be selected by the court, shall preside over the Senate when sitting as a court of impeachment. No person may be convicted by the Senate sitting as a court of impeachment without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. ”

“ In April of 1963 the ordinance that was on the book in Birmingham contained language that affirmatively conferred upon the members of the Commission absolute power to refuse a parade permit whenever they thought 'the public welfare, peace, safety, health, decency, good order, morals or convenience require that it be refused.' It would have taken extraordinary clairvoyance for anyone to perceive that this language meant what the Supreme Court of Alabama was destined to find that it meant more than four years later ”

“ Therefore, we are left under no doubt that appellant's point on systematic exclusion of Negroes from the jury rolls in Greene County is not well taken.' Exercising its discretion to permit petitioner to attack the exclusion by motion for a new trial, the Supreme Court of Alabama decided petitioner's constitutional claim on the merits. ”

“ The presumption is said to be artificial, and not drawn from the facts of life. When coupled with the local rule that the party cannot testify to his actual intent, it is said practically to make a crime out of a mere departure from service, which, it is said, and it seems to have been conceded by the supreme court of Alabama, could not be done. ”

“ The judicial power of this state shall be vested in one Supreme Court, circuit courts to be held in each county in the state, and such inferior courts of law and equity, to consist of not more than five members, as the General Assembly may, from time to time, direct, ordain, and establish.
SEC. 2. The supreme court, except in cases otherwise directed by this constitution, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which shall be co-extensive with the state, under such restrictions and regulations, not repugnant to this constitution, as may, from time to time, be prescribed by law ”

“ The holding of the Alabama Supreme Court, and the affirmance of its decision by this Court, rest on the assumption that petitioners may be criminally punished although the parade ordinance and the injunction be unconstitutional on their faces as in violation of the First Amendment, and even if the parade ordinance was discriminatorily applied. ”

“ While punitive damages in Alabama may embrace such factors as the heinousness of the civil wrong, its effect upon the victim, the likelihood of its recurrence, and the extent of the defendant's wrongful gain, the factfinder must be guided by more than the defendant's net worth. Alabama plaintiffs do not enjoy a windfall because they have the good fortune to have a defendant with a deep pocket.
These standards have real effect when applied by the Alabama Supreme Court to jury awards. ”

“ In this proceeding, an Alabama circuit court entered an order directing petitioner to certify to the Secretary of State of Alabama the name of respondent as a candidate for nomination for Presidential and Vice-Presidential elector in the primary election of the Democratic Party to be held on May 6, 1952. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed on the single ground that the order was compelled by Article II, Section 1 and the Twelfth Amendment of the United States Constitution. ”

“ Constituting one-eighth of the population of the whole country, two-fifths of the whole Southern people, and a majority in several States, they are not able, because disfranchised where most numerous, to send one representative to the Congress, which, by the decision in the Alabama case, is held by the Supreme Court to be the only body, outside of the State itself, competent to give relief from a great political wrong. ”

“ At the outset, I would resolve these cases in a way that would not require the Federal Judiciary to decide the correct racial apportionment of Alabama’s congressional seats. Under the statutory text, a §2 challenge must target a “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure.” 52 U. S. C. §10301 (a) . I have long been convinced that those words reach only “enactments that regulate citizens’ access to the ballot or the processes for counting a ballot”; they “do not include a State’s ... choice of one districting scheme over another.” ”

“ But we made clear that our decision was premised on AEDPA’s “demanding” and “deferential standard.” Id., at___, ___ (slip op., at 3, 4) . “We express [ed] no view” on the question of Madison’s competency “outside of the AEDPA context.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 4) . [1]
When Alabama set an execution date in 2018, Madison returned to state court to argue again that his mental condition precluded the State from going forward. In his petition, Madison reiterated the facts and arguments he had previously presented to the state court. ”

“ When, in 1876, the legislature of Alabama organized the city court of Selma, a court of common law with civil, criminal and equity jurisdiction, the bar of Dallas County recommended Judge Haralson to Governor Houston for the judgeship of this court. For sixteen years he presided over the court with [Pg 343] signal ability. At the end of that time he was elected to the supreme bench of the state, where he served for twelve years. ”

“ Indeed it will be prudent to do so in light of Government and Civic Employees Organizing Committee, C.I.O. v. Windsor, supra, where we ruled, 'The bare adjudication by the Alabama Supreme Court that the union is subject to this Act does not suffice, since that court was not asked to interpret the statute in light of the constitutional objections presented to the District Court.' 353 U.S., at 366, 77 S.Ct., at 839, 1 L.Ed.2d 894. ”

“ The contention that mapmakers must be entirely “blind” to race has no footing in our §2 case law. The line that we have long drawn is between consciousness and predominance. Plaintiffs adduced at least one illustrative map that comported with our precedents. They were required to do no more to satisfy the first step of Gingles.
2
The next condition Alabama would graft onto §2 is a requirement that plaintiffs demonstrate, at the totality of circumstances stage, that the State’s enacted plan contains fewer majority-minority districts than the race-neutral benchmark. ”

“ The fact that a multimillion dollar penalty prompted a change in policy sheds no light on the question whether a lesser deterrent would have adequately protected the interests of Alabama consumers. In the absence of a history of noncompliance with known statutory requirements, there is no basis for assuming that a more modest sanction would not have been sufficient to motivate full compliance with the disclosure requirement imposed by the Alabama Supreme Court in this case. ”