Reverting edit(s) by 2600:1000:B12E:3D48:7D81:BAF2:5E76:8355 (talk) to rev. 1209443650 by Geardona: Unexplained content removal (RW 16.1) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|American judge (born 1951)}} | |||
{{Infobox officeholder | |||
| name = Tom Parker | |||
| office = 33rd Chief Justice of the [[Supreme Court of Alabama|Alabama Supreme Court]] | |||
| honorific-prefix = | |||
| term_start = January 11, 2019 | |||
| term_end = | |||
| predecessor = [[Lyn Stuart]] | |||
| successor = | |||
| office1 = Associate Justice of the [[Supreme Court of Alabama|Alabama Supreme Court]]<br />Place 1 | | office1 = Associate Justice of the [[Supreme Court of Alabama|Alabama Supreme Court]]<br />Place 1 | ||
| ⚫ | | termother points in his career, Parker was an Alabama assistant attorney general, deputy administrative director of Alabama courts; general counsel for Alabama trial courts; and director of the Alabama Judicial College.<ref name="Hrynkiw">Ivana Hrynkiw, [https://www.al.com/news/montgomery/2018/10/alabama-supreme-court-chief-justice-race-meet-bob-vance-tom-parker.html Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice race: Meet Bob Vance, Tom Parker], AL.com (October 25, 2018); Paul Leblanc, [https://www.newsweek.com/alabama-republicans-roy-moore-chief-justice-967631 Alabama Republican's Pick for Roy Moore's Old job is a Lot Like Roy Moore], ''Newsweek'' (June 8, 2018)</ref> | ||
| term_start1 = January 14, 2005 | |||
| term_end1 = January 11, 2019 | |||
| predecessor1 = [[Jean Brown (judge)|Jean Brown]] | |||
| successor1 = [[Brady E. Mendheim Jr.]] | |||
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1951|8|19}} | |||
| birth_place = [[Montgomery, Alabama]], U.S. | |||
| death_date = | |||
| death_place = | |||
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | |||
| education = [[Dartmouth College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Vanderbilt University Law School|Vanderbilt University]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]]) | |||
}} | |||
'''Tom Parker''' (born August 19, 1951)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/372/000167868|title=Tom Parker|publisher=[[NNDB]]|accessdate=February 21, 2015}}</ref> is an American lawyer and judge. He is the chief justice of the [[Supreme Court of Alabama|Alabama Supreme Court]] winning election in November 2018. He previously served as an associate justice on the court having been elected to that position in 2004 and re-elected in 2010. | |||
==Education== | |||
Parker graduated from [[Dartmouth College]] and [[Vanderbilt University Law School]].<ref name="Brown">Melissa Brown, [https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/15/alabama-chief-justice-race-tom-parker-reiterates-conservative-bonafides-race-against-bob-vance/1646293002/ Alabama Chief Justice candidate Tom Parker: 'I know what we need'], ''Montgomery Advertiser'' (October 15, 2018).</ref> He studied at the [[Law School, University of São Paulo]] in Brazil as a [[Rotary International]] fellow.<ref name="ThirdTerm">Kent Faulk, [https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/02/alabama_supreme_court_justice.html Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker seeks third term], AL.com (February 25, 2016).</ref> | |||
==Career== | |||
| ⚫ | |||
Parker defeated Robert H. Smith to become an associate justice on the [[Alabama Supreme Court]] in 2004 and was sworn in on January 14, 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsfa.com/story/2812662/new-alabama-supreme-court-justices-sworn-in/|title = New Alabama Supreme Court Justices Sworn-In| date=15 January 2005 }}</ref> | Parker defeated Robert H. Smith to become an associate justice on the [[Alabama Supreme Court]] in 2004 and was sworn in on January 14, 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsfa.com/story/2812662/new-alabama-supreme-court-justices-sworn-in/|title = New Alabama Supreme Court Justices Sworn-In| date=15 January 2005 }}</ref> | ||
| office1 = Associate Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court
Place 1| termother points in his career, Parker was an Alabama assistant attorney general, deputy administrative director of Alabama courts; general counsel for Alabama trial courts; and director of the Alabama Judicial College.[1]
Parker defeated Robert H. Smith to become an associate justice on the Alabama Supreme Court in 2004 and was sworn in on January 14, 2005.[2]
He unsuccessfully ran for chief justice in 2006.
He was re-elected in 2010.[3]
Parker successfully sought a third term as associate justice in 2016.[4]
On June 5, 2018, Parker won the Republican nomination for Chief Justice over incumbent Chief Justice Lyn Stuart,[5] although seven current and former Alabama Supreme Court justices publicly supported Stuart over Parker in the primary, two of whom - despite being republicans - would contribute to Parker's Democratic opponent in the general election.[3] Parker went on to defeat the Democratic nominee, Circuit Judge Bob Vance, in the general election on November 6, 2018.[3][6] The campaign was marked by negative television advertising in which Parker's campaign ran ads accusing Vance (who was supported by a moderate coalition) of being backed by "leftist billionaires" and in which Vance's campaign ran ads saying that Parker was "another Roy Moore" who would bring more "chaos and controversy" to Alabama.[3] It was also notable for the significant support Parker received from the trial lawyers via the Progress for Justice PAC.[7]
He was sworn in as Chief Justice of Alabama on January 11, 2019.[8]
Parker currently sits on the Board of Jurists at the Blackstone and Burke Center for Law and Liberty, at Faulkner University.[9] On Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2022 Parker sent a letter of apology to the Echota Cherokee Tribe on behalf of the past actions against their people during the times of removal.[10]
As a candidate in 2004, he was criticized by the Southern Poverty Law Center for distributing Confederate flags at a funeral of a Confederate widow.[11] Parker was photographed at the funeral standing between Leonard Wilson, a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Mike Whorton, a leader with the League of the South. He denied being a member of either group and said he did not consider his actions in either event inappropriate for a judicial candidate.[12] Parker was also criticized for attending a party in Selma commemorating the birthday of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan.[11] The party was hosted at "Fort Dixie" by Pat and Butch Godwin, operator of Friends of Forrest Inc. and also involved with the League of the South.[13][14]
In 2006, Parker wrote an op-ed, published in The Birmingham News, in which he criticized his colleagues on the state supreme court for a ruling the previous year in which the court reversed a death sentence for a 17-year-old convicted of murder, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Roper v. Simmons.[3] In the op-ed, Parker criticized the Roper decision as "blatant judicial tyranny" and asserted that "State supreme courts may decline to follow bad U.S. Supreme Court precedents because those decisions bind only the parties to the particular case."[15] The claim was criticized by legal experts (as well as Alabama Chief Justice Drayton Nabers Jr., whom Parker was then running against) because it contravenes the accepted principle of American jurisprudence that the U.S. Supreme Court has ultimate authority on matters of federal law.[15] Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor criticized Parker's op-ed in a Wall Street Journal commentary, writing that it was an inappropriate attack on fellow judges and was at odds with the Constitution's Supremacy Clause.[16]
Justice Tom Woodall, then running for his second term as an associate supreme court justice, criticized Parker as a candidate for chief justice in 2006. Woodhall characterized Parker's views as extreme, called Parker's op-ed criticizing his colleagues "cowardly and deceitful" and said that Parker "doesn't handle his cases; he just lets them pile up."[17] Parker had the lowest productivity compared to the state's other new justices, writing only one opinion in his first fifteen months compared to 38 by Mike Bolin and 28 by Patricia Smith. Parker attributed slowness to the fact that he had no experience as a judge and because he had to hire new staff members.[18]
A longtime ally and former aide of Roy Moore, whose candidacy for United States Senate was derailed following multiple allegations of romantically pursuing teenagers while an adult,[1] he is known for his conservative views.[3] He strongly opposed Roe v. Wade (1973), calling it a "constitutional aberration", and has written a number of anti-abortion judicial opinions.[1] Parker opposes same-sex marriage and has criticized the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).[4]
Parker lives in Montgomery County and is married.[4]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court 2019–present | Incumbent |
Chief justices of state and insular area supreme courts | |
|---|---|
Federal districts: Territories: Alexandro Castro Rhys Hodge | |
|
 | ||
Statewide political officials of Alabama | ||
|---|---|---|
| U.S. senators |  | |
| State government | ||
| Senate |
| |
| House |
| |
| Supreme Court |
| |
