Greg Shaw
2009 - Present
2027
16
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Greg Shaw (Republican Party) is a judge of the Alabama Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2009. His current term ends on January 18, 2027.
Shaw (Republican Party) ran for re-election for judge of the Alabama Supreme Court. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Shaw first became a member of the Alabama Supreme Court through a partisan election. He was first elected to the court in 2008 and re-elected in 2014 and 2020. To read more about judicial selection in Alabama, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[1] Shaw received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[2] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Shaw was raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Auburn University in 1979 and graduated from Samford University's Cumberland School of Law in 1982. In 2004, he received a Master of Laws degree in the judicial process from the University of Virginia School of Law.[3]
Shaw started a general law practice in Birmingham. He served as Alabama Supreme Court Justice James Gorman Houston Jr.'s senior staff attorney for 15 years. In 2000, he was elected to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. In 2007, he was appointed chief judge of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. He served in both positions until January 20, 2009, when he became a justice on the state supreme court.[3]
Elections
2020
See also: Alabama Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Alabama Supreme Court
Incumbent Greg Shaw won election in the general election for Alabama Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Greg Shaw (R) | 97.6 | 1,554,369 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.4 | 38,502 | ||
| Total votes: 1,592,871 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Alabama Supreme Court
Incumbent Greg Shaw defeated Cam Ward in the Republican primary for Alabama Supreme Court on March 3, 2020.
| Total votes: 589,233 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Bryan Taylor (R)
2014
- See also: Alabama judicial elections, 2014
Shaw ran for re-election to the Alabama Supreme Court.
General: He was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.[4]
2008
| Alabama Supreme Court, Associate Justice 2008 General election results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
Greg Shaw (R) 
|
1,021,371 | 50.3% | ||
| Deborah Bell Paseur (D) | 1,008,479 | 49.6% | ||
- Click here for 2008 General Election Results from the Alabama Secretary of State.
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Greg Shaw did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Anlaysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[5]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[6]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
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Greg
Shaw
Alabama
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican
- Donated over $2000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Shaw ran as a registered Republican to gain his seat on the Alabama Supreme Court. He donated $3,850 to Republican individuals and organizations. Shaw received a majority of his campaign contributions from sources that typically fund Republican candidates. Conservative PAC also engaged in satellite spending in support of Shaw’s campaign.
Other Scores:
In a 2012 study of campaign contributions, Shaw received a campaign finance score of 0.79, indicating a conservative ideological leaning.
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Shaw received a campaign finance score of 0.79, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was equal to the average score of 0.79 that justices received in Alabama.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[7]
Noteworthy cases
Alabama Supreme Court halts same-sex marriage in the state (2015)
Following the January 2015 order by U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade lifting Alabama’s ban on gay marriage, the Alabama Supreme Court voted 7-1 to halt same-sex marriage in the state. In its March 4, 2015, per curiam ruling, the highest court in Alabama said that by law, marriage in the state is, and has always been, between one man and one woman. Further, the justices’ ruling stated that nothing in the United States Constitution or any other federal law overrides Alabama’s right to make its own law on marriage.
Justice Greg Shaw was the lone dissenter in the Alabama court opinion. He argued in his dissent that the Alabama Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction to issue its ruling.
Conservative group The Liberty Counsel, which opposed Judge Granade’s order, called the opinion by the Alabama court “the most forceful and clearly articulated rebuttal to date” in regards to same-sex marriage.[8] The Human Rights Campaign responded to the ruling by stating that the court did not have “authority to interfere with a federal court ruling.”[9]
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed the right to marry as a fundamental liberty for same-sex couples.
State supreme court judicial selection in Alabama
- See also: Judicial selection in Alabama
The nine justices on the Alabama Supreme Court are selected through partisan elections for six-year terms. They appear on partisan election ballots statewide and face re-election if they wish to serve again.[10] For more information about these elections, visit the Alabama judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- licensed to practice law for at least 10 years;
- a state resident for at least one year;
- under the age of 70 at the time of election (judges who turn 70 in office may serve until their terms expire).[11][12]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by popular vote, serving in that office for his or her full six-year term.[10][13]
Vacancies
Should a vacancy occur between regularly scheduled elections, which take place in November of even-numbered years, an interim justice is appointed by the governor. Any justice appointed in this fashion must then stand for election in the next general election occurring at least one year after taking office.[10][14]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
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Officeholder Alabama Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alabama Judicial System, "Associate Justice Shaw," accessed June 9, 2021
- ↑ Alabama Secretary of State, "2014 Election Information," accessed June 9, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ WHNT, “State Supreme Court orders stop to same-sex marriage licenses,” updated March 4, 2015
- ↑ Washington Post, “In defiant ruling, Alabama Supreme Court stops same-sex marriage in state,” March 4, 2015
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Alabama Judicial System, "Qualification of Judges," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Judicial Retirement Laws, "Alabama: Mandatory Retirement Provisions Applicable Generally," accessed August 10, 2021
- ↑ Alabama Secretary of State, "Minimum Qualifications for Public Office," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Justia, "Article VI, Alabama Constitution - Section 152," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map," accessed March 23, 2023
| ||||||||||
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|---|---|---|---|
| Current judges | Tommy Bryan, Greg Cook, Chris McCool, Brad Mendheim, Jay Mitchell, William Sellers, Greg Shaw, Sarah Stewart, Kelli Wise | ||
| Former judges | Michael Bolin, Sue Bell Cobb, James Allen Main, Roy Moore, Glenn Murdock, Tom Parker, Tom Parker, Sarah Stewart, Lyn Stuart, Thomas A. Woodall | ||
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Alabama, Middle District of Alabama, Southern District of Alabama • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Alabama, Middle District of Alabama, Southern District of Alabama
State courts:
Alabama Supreme Court • Alabama Court of Civil Appeals • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals • Alabama Circuit Courts • Alabama District Courts • Alabama Juvenile Courts • Alabama Municipal Courts • Alabama Probate Courts • Alabama Small Claims Courts
State resources:
Courts in Alabama • Alabama judicial elections • Judicial selection in Alabama
