Alabama Supreme Court sets expedited schedule for Tuberville residency suit

The Alabama Supreme Court Tuesday granted an expedited briefing schedule in Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville’s residency lawsuit at the request of plaintiffs. 

The plaintiff’s briefs are due on Aug. 7, according to the schedule, and Tuberville’s response is due within 14 days of the appellants filing. The plaintiffs’ legal team will have one week to file a response, according to the order. 

Attorney Barry Ragsdale, representing the plaintiffs, wrote in the motion for an expedited schedule that the issue of Tuberville’s residency needs to be resolved “promptly and without delay.”

“The present case raises an important question regarding Tuberville’s eligibility to be the certified nominee and to serve as the Governor of Alabama,” he wrote on Thursday.

Ragsdale said in a statement Tuesday that while he is thankful for the expedited schedule, it is not fast enough for the Alabama Republican Party to replace Tuberville on November’s ballot, should the Supreme Court find him ineligible. 

“Alabama voters have the right to know that Tommy Tuberville doesn’t meet the constitutional requirements to be governor as soon as possible, and certainly well before the November election,” Ragsdale said. “Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves once that happens.”

Jordan Doufexis, chair of the Tuberville campaign, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that the Tuberville team expects the Alabama Supreme Court to “put a final end to this nonsense.”

“Coach is 5-0 in residency challenges, and we look forward to being 2-0 against DC Doug come November,” Doufexis said.

Ragsdale said in June that he was working on the lawsuit before Democratic gubernatorial nominee Doug Jones was a candidate for the office.

The lawsuit echoes many accusations reported by Alabama media outlets that Tuberville has not lived in Alabama for seven years, which is a requirement to run for governor. Tuberville maintains that he meets the requirements. A Montgomery County judge dismissed the case earlier this month due to a lack of jurisdiction after a hearing, but not the merits. 

Associate Justice Greg Cook recused himself in the Motion to Expedite, but it is unclear if the recusal will be for the entire case. Court documents did not give a reason for his recusal. 

Cook was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in June at the recommendation of Tuberville and Republican U.S. Sen. Katie Britt. He was elected to the court in 2022 after a career at Balch & Bingham, LLP – the law firm that represented the Alabama Republican Party in a similar challenge brought by Tuberville’s former primary challenger in June.

Ragsdale praised Cook for the recusal, but said he should not be alone. 

“We intend to ask the other Justices to join him and to have the Chief Justice appoint a Special Supreme Court to decide this politically charged case,” he said.

In past Special Supreme Courts, judges have been chosen at random in 2004, or from a list of retired circuit judges in 1997. The court’s rules allow for recusals based on the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics if the Clerk of the Supreme Court finds a conflict of interest between a litigant and a judge.