The Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously sided with Liberty Counsel’s motion to send back to the trial court the legal challenge filed against the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) by Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom Parker. The JIC’s motion to dismiss the challenge was denied.

Hon. Tom Parker is challenging the constitutionality of several speech restrictive Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics and the automatic disqualification provision of Section 159 of the Alabama Constitution. These provisions were being used by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to silence the protected speech of Justice Parker. The lower court dismissed Justice Parker’s lawsuit, on the grounds that the JIC’s pending investigation required federal courts to abstain from the matter. However, while Parker’s appeal was pending, the JIC dismissed the SPLC’s complaint. Liberty Counsel then filed a motion to have the case returned to the lower court to address the merits of the legal challenge. This action is crucial since the violation of First Amendment rights is capable of being (and likely to be) repeated in this and future cases. The JIC objected and argued that the case should be dismissed. The Federal Court of Appeals sided with Liberty Counsel.

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