The Alabama Supreme Court Justices have recused themselves from hearing the appeal of Chief Justice Roy Moore. But in a 5-3 vote, the majority decided to allow Acting Chief Justice Lynn Stuart to work with the Governor to randomly select seven “retired” judges from a pool of 50 judges. The three dissenting justices argued that the judges should be accountable to the public and having a panel of all “retired” judges means they would not be accountable. They dissented from the part of the opinion that states that the replacement judges will be selected only from “retired” judges.

Chief Justice Moore had filed a motion to recuse four of the five justices in the majority opinion. These include Lynn Stuart, Michael Bolin, James, Main and Greg Shaw. Moore argued that Justice Stuart should play no role in selecting replacement judges due to conflict of interest, and further argued that a judge who is disqualified from acting cannot be the one to appoint a replacement.

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