Lyn Stuart
From Judgepedia
Contents |
Lyn Stuart is currently a Justice on the Alabama Supreme Court. She was first elected to a six-year term on the court in 2000, and then again in 2006. Her current term expires in 2012.
Alabama is one of eight states that picks state supreme court justices in partisan elections; Stuart has run for the office as a Republican.
Background
Legal education
Stuart received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Education from Auburn University with high honor in 1977. She received her Juris Doctorate degree from The University of Alabama School of Law in 1980. She served as Secretary of the Student Bar Association, was a member of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Board and received the Dean's Service Award at graduation.[1]
Legal experience
Upon graduation from law school, Stuart worked as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama under former Attorney General Charles Graddick. She also served as Executive Assistant to the Commissioner and Special Assistant Attorney General for the State Department of Corrections. Upon moving to Baldwin County, she became an Assistant District Attorney for Baldwin County on the staff of District Attorney David Whetstone. In 1988, she was elected District Judge, and was re-elected in 1994. Governor Fob James appointed Justice Stuart to the Circuit bench in January 1997. She was elected, without opposition, to a six year term in 1998.
Justice Stuart was invited and served as a Faculty Advisor at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. She is a past president of the Alabama Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She has served as a national speaker for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, training judges and other professionals on the handling of child abuse and neglect cases. She served as President of the Blue Ridge Institute for Juvenile and Family Court Judges in 2002.[2]
Awards and Associations
Justice Lyn Stuart was invited and served as a Faculty Advisor at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. She is a past president of the Alabama Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She has served as a national speaker for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, training judges and other professionals on the handling of child abuse and neglect cases. She served as President of the Blue Ridge Institute for Juvenile and Family Court Judges in 2002. She is a member and past president of several civic organizations: the Heritage Junior Women's Club, the Bay Minette Kiwanis Club; and the Jubilee Woman's Club. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs. Lyn and George are members of the First United Methodist Church of Bay Minette, where Lyn has served as a member of the Administrative Board and the Board of Trustees, and teaches a young adult Sunday School class.[3]
Campaign contributions
2006 campaign
In the 2006 campaign, Stuart raised a total of $1,799,235. General Business contributed $1,315,250, or 73.10% of the total. Transportation was the second largest industry that gave to the campaign with $130,100, or 7.23%, and Lawyers and Lobbyists were the third largest industry in giving to Stuart's campaign, with $113,983, or 6.34%.[4]
2008
Although she is not running in the 2008 campaign, she has raised $12,472.[5]
Notable rulings
Driver exams in Spanish
In a 5-4 decision, the Alabama Supreme Court said the ProEnglish group presented no evidence that administering the test in multiple languages diminishes English as Alabama's common language. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Gov. Bob Riley and other state officials. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb cited the governor's argument that permitting people with limited English proficiency to take the written portion of the exam in their native language helped them get a license, and the license fostered their assimilation into the community by increasing their access to education, employment and shopping. Four justices — Glenn Murdock, Lyn Stuart, Michael Bolin and Tom Parker — said the case should have gone in favor of the plaintiffs. In Bolin's dissent, he said the majority was misinterpreting the constitution amendment. "The immigrants who came to Alabama by way of Ellis Island in the early 20th century did not have the benefit of a tortured construction of Amendment No. 509 and evidently 'assimilated' the wrong way — they actually learned the English language," Bolin wrote.
In 1990, Alabama voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that says: "English is the official language of the state of Alabama." The constitutional amendment also says the Legislature "shall enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation," and the Legislature "shall make no law which diminishes or ignores the role of English as the common language of the state of Alabama." The state Department of Public Safety currently offers the driver's exam in Arabic, English, Chinese, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese and American sign language.[6]
Abortion denied to minor
The Alabama Supreme Court has upheld the July 20 decision of a lower court judge who had ruled that "a pregnant teenager and her godmother answered questions so perfunctorily and showed so little emotion that he refused to allow her to get an abortion without parental consent," according to the Associated Press. Under requirements handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, protective laws which establish that parents be notified when a minor daughter is contemplating an abortion must have a " judicial bypass." Under this procedure, the minor goes to a court to establish either that the abortion is in her "best interest" or that she is "mature" enough to make the decision on her own. Ordinarily, such requests are rubber stamped. Not so in this case. According to the AP, the trial judge who denied the waiver for the 17-year-old girl wrote that the "'testimony of the minor and her godmother appeared to be rehearsed and that neither of the two individuals showed any emotion concerning the very serious request that they were making in this proceeding.... This court did not believe the minor or her godmother,' who is identified as a woman with children."
Chief Justice Roy Moore and Justices Harold Frend See, Jr., Champ Lyons, Jr., Jean Brown, and Lyn Stuart agreed. The majority said the lower court's conclusions, "although subjective, were based on its having personally viewed the witnesses as they testified and cannot be questioned on appeal, where we have before us only a cold, printed record." The dissenting justices attributed the decision to "religious opposition" that is "pervasive and intransigent" in Alabama.[7]
See Also
External Links
- Members of the Court
- Lyn Stuart's Blog
- Alabama Judicial System Online: Lyn Stuart
- Alabama Judicial System
- Follow the Money: Lyn Stuart
- Questions over DUI Law involves Stuart
- Project Vote Smart
- Court: video sweepstakes machines are illegal gambling
