Sue Bell Cobb
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Sue Bell Cobb (D) is the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. She was elected to the court, in the state's partisan elections, as a Democrat. She is the only Democrat on the court. Judge Cobb was also the first woman elected as a chief justice. Her current term expires in 2012.
Biography
Justice Cobb is married to William J. Cobb, Executive Director of Governmental Affairs of Bell South. They have three children, Bill, Andy and Caitlin. She currently resides in Montgomery, Alabama with her husband Bill and daughter Caitlin. Cobb also plays the piano in her church.[1]
Background
Legal education
Justice Cobb graduated from The University of Alabama, where she obtained a degree in History, receiving the highest scholastic award in that field of study, the Phi Alpha Theta Scholarship Key. In 1981, she earned her Juris Doctor Degree from The University of Alabama School of Law and was a member of the Bench and Bar Honor Society, Farrah Law Society and the Moot Court Board.[2]
Legal experience
Immediately following her admission to the Bar, Justice Cobb was appointed as District Judge of Conecuh County, becoming one of the State's youngest judges. She was elected to that position in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. During her tenure on the bench, Judge Cobb accepted trial court assignments in approximately forty counties. In 1997, she was appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to serve as the Alternate Chief Judge of the Court of the Judiciary. Justice Cobb is also a faculty member in the Alabama Judicial College. She was elected to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 1994, where she served until she took office as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama in 2007. Prior to her time on the court of appeals, Justice Cobb was a state district court trial judge for many years. She defeated Republican incumbent Drayton Nabers, Jr., of the old and distinguished Drayton Family in the November 2006 general election.[3]
Gubernatorial Aims
Cobb was asked by Democratic representatives to run in the state's gubernatorial race in 2010. In response, Cobb said that her interest remains rooted in serving in the judiciary.
Awards and Associations
Justice Cobb served as President of the Alabama Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She is Chair of the Children First Foundation, which is dedicated to helping make the lives and conditions of Alabama's children a top priority in our state through advocacy, awareness, and accountability. As a result of her efforts in the field of juvenile justice, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Juvenile Detention Association, the Juvenile Probation Officer Institute Outstanding Service Award, and the Children's Voice Award. Justice Cobb is a graduate of Leadership Alabama and is a Stennis Center Pacesetter. She received the 1999 Public Citizen of the Year Award by the Alabama Chapter of National Social Workers Association, the 1996 NAACP Political Achievement Award from the Conecuh County Branch of the NAACP, the 1995 Montgomery Advertiser Woman of Achievement Award and the 1992 Judicial Conservationist Award of the Alabama Wildlife Federation. Justice Cobb was recently named State Winner of the Bishop Barron State Employee Public Service Award. She is an honorary member of the Alabama Council on Crime and Delinquency. Justice Cobb is a past member and officer of the Evergreen Industrial Development Board. She is a member of the Farrah Law Society Board of Directors, the Montgomery Kiwanis Club, and First United Methodist Church where she plays the piano for children's choir.
Justice Cobb is Past Chair of the Board of the Alabama Division of the American Cancer Society. She has held numerous positions with the American Cancer Society and consequently received the Volunteer of the Year Award, the Wes Nowlin Award, and the highest national award, the St. George Medal. She has represented Alabama on the Mid-South Division Board, which includes representatives from Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. She has also served on the National Assembly of the American Cancer Society. Justice Cobb served on the Board of Campaign for Alabama.
Cobb takes particular interest in child advocacy and drug courts. She has advocated for at least one drug court per county by 2009-10, because she sees them as beneficial alternatives to traditonal prison sentences.[4]
2006 campaign
Cobb accused of running false ads
Alabama ’s judicial races are often among the nation's fiercest, and the 2006 contest for the post of Supreme Court chief justice was no different--it was the most expensive judicial campaign in the nation. Sue Bell Cobb, who defeated incumbent Justice Drayton Nabers, Jr., put up a misleading ad towards the end of the campaign claiming that Nabers was "backed by a million dollars of oil money for negative TV ads." The number $990,000 flashes on the screen. However, the money didn't come from the oil industry. The Birmingham News quoted Cobb as saying at a press conference that the $990,000 figure was the estimated cost of TV ads run the previous received 61 percent of its budget from Reliant Energy Corp., a large, Texas-based electricity provider – not "the oil industry."
Cobb ran the ad in response to one aired by Nabers that excerpted a television interview in which Cobb was asked by a caller about contributions from "gambling bosses." According to a spokeswoman for Cobb's campaign, the ad used slow-motion to accentuate Cobb's brief pause before she responded, "I am not sure what they're talking about there, to be perfectly frank." Cobb called the ad "edited" and "distorted." The public wasn't able to view a copy of the original interview for comparison.[5]
Role of trial lawyers
In the 2006 election, Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse asked that voters consider the source of television spots and brochures for liberal chief justice candidate Sue Bell Cobb. She was sponsored by members of the "tainted and discredited trial lawyer group." Through the years, the Beasley firm, run by Montgomery trial lawyer Jere Beasley, has run literally millions of dollars through PAC transfers to hide their influence in the Supreme Court race. Beasley has publicly declared his opposition to PAC transfers again and again, but few, if any, have run more money through more PAC'S than Beasley and his firm. Beasley and his firm have put about $496,000 in the Cobb campaign. The money has been bounced through 22 PAC's. Trial lawyers like Beasley want to use Cobb to regain control of the Supreme Court because when they controlled it before, they rode it like a horse and milked it like a cow. From 1989 through 1996, the state's court system approved an astounding $767,016,900. In 1994, they cost the state millions in court expenses and created a national scandal when they used illegal absentee ballots to try to steal a Supreme Court election. In 1996, they sponsored the infamous “skunk ad” a watchdog group called it the “sleaziest ad in the history of American politics.” In 1998, a trial lawyer used a prostitute to lie about a candidate. And it was 2000 before business matched trial lawyer spending in the Supreme Court race. In 2004, they funded a sleazy campaign for Tom Parker against Justice Jean Brown. It continues every election year.
That court oversaw a civil court system Forbes Magazine dubbed “tort hell.” It was cited as one of the three worst civil justice systems in the nation by the American Tort Reform Association. By 1996 the U.S. Supreme Court had only on six occasions considered whether to strike down a punitive damages award as constitutionally excessive. Three of those cases came from Alabama. The national average trial lawyer fee is 33 percent. In Alabama, it is 40 to 45 percent. And the trial lawyer allows the “client” to pay fees and court costs, which means trial lawyers usually rip about 50 percent right out of the mouths of their victims.
The trial lawyers counted on electing Cobb, the Democratic candidate for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice. On each occasion that she has provided testimony before a legislative committee on tort reform, she has taken sides with the trial lawyers against it. Every time. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that tort reform spurs business growth and that lawsuit abuse kills business and robs jobs. Alabama's wealthy personal injury trial lawyers are presently pouring money into the Cobb campaign coffers, and they will ultimately put in $2 to $3 million dollars. They will of course use PAC to PAC transfers to try to hide this fact from voters and the media until the election is over. According to the author of the article, "It is a trial lawyer tradition to hold most of its contributions to the last second before reporting them so that it appears the conservatives have a huge lead in funding. Unfortunately, some media people are fooled each year and it is often reported in a manner that is accurate but alas untrue."[6]
Campaign contributions
In the 2006 election, Sue Bell Cobb raised a total of $2,621,838. Of that, the top three industries are as follows:
- Lawyers and Lobbyists, $1,075,770, or 41.03%
- General Business, $666,900, or 25.44%
- Democratic Party, $243,119, or 9.27% of the total.[7]
For a complete summary of Judge Cobb's campaign contributions, visit Follow the Money: Sue Bell Cobb.
Judicial positions
Favors drug courts
Drug courts and community punishment programs are the answer to drug-addicted criminals and overcrowded prisons, according to Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb. Speaking to the Rotary Club in Huntsville, she warned that unless the state court system gets an $8 million increase in its budget for the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, vital programs could be cut and 400 court employees could lose their jobs. Having been told that prisons are at 200 percent capacity, the state's first female chief justice said the drug court "is the single best way" of rehabilitating addicts and keeping them out of jail. "Community punishment is where it's at," she told the crowd of local business and government leaders. "It will literally turn lives around and save tax dollars." Drug courts keep nonviolent criminals out of jail by placing them into a community corrections program that includes counseling, community service, random drug testing and intensive monitoring.
In August, drug courts were operating in 18 counties. Today, Cobb said, they are in all but four of the state's 67 counties.[8]
More spending on legal aid
Alabama's judicial elections consistently rank as among the most expensive in the nation, but Alabama’s support of its criminal justice system ranks at or near the bottom in many categories. The state spends less on inmates than any other state, creating crowded and understaffed conditions. Almost alone among states, Alabama does not guarantee an attorney for inmates making post-conviction appeals in capital cases; the excuse is that we can’t afford it. Our state ranks 51st -- behind even Puerto Rico -- in access for the underprivileged to legal counsel in civil matters. Sue Bell Cobb advocates publicly for change--she has urged the state bar association to back a program of judicial reform. The Alabama Access to Justice Commission, whose program Cobb supports, wants to evaluate the system, develop a plan to serve low-income people effectively with a wide range of services and develop standards to access the performance of providers.[9]
Funding the court
As Chief Justice, Cobb has been a "defender of the budget when the Legislature begins scrutinizing 2009 requests in mid-January."[10]
Cobb is lobbying for a $10 million judicial budget increase in order to keep the court system in stasis. Included in this amount is a mandatory 3.5% pay increase for court system workers.
See also
External links
- Alabama Judicial System: Sue Bell Cobb
- Alabama Supreme Court
- 2005 Bama Blog Post
- Wikipedia: Sue Bell Cobb
- Sue Bell Cobb Commercial for Chief Justice
- Cobb promotes drug courts
- Cobb advocates reform
- Follow the Money: Sue Bell Cobb
- Cobb outspending Nabers
References
- ↑ Alabama Judicial System: Sue Bell Cobb
- ↑ Alabama Judicial System: Sue Bell Cobb
- ↑ Alabama Judicial System: Sue Bell Cobb
- ↑ Alabama Judicial System: Sue Bell Cobb
- ↑ FactCheck.org
- ↑ Anniston Star
- ↑ Follow the Money: Sue Bell Cobb, 2006
- ↑ Alabama.com
- ↑ Tuscaloosa News
- ↑ Sue Bell Cobb not interested in governor race
Portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia on 12/12/2007
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