Alabama Republicans to vote on nominee for chief justice, weeks after court’s frozen embryo ruling

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Republicans will choose who to replace the retiring chief justice of the state Supreme Court, who attracted national attention last month for his decision to recognize frozen embryos as children.

The ruling raised concerns about the civil liability of fertility clinics, and three major providers announced a pause on in vitro fertilization services.

Competing for the Republican nomination are Sarah Stewart, a current Alabama Supreme Court justice, and Bryan Taylor, a former senator and legal adviser to two governors. The winner will face Circuit Judge Greg Griffin, a Democrat from Montgomery, in November. Griffin is unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Chief Justice Tom Parker cited verses from the Bible and Christian theologians in his concurring opinion, alarming proponents of church-state separation and delighting religious conservatives who oppose abortion. Parker cannot run for reelection because Alabama law prohibits judges from being elected or appointed after the age of 70.

Alabama’s chief justice is a member of the state’s highest court and also serves as the administrative head of the state’s court system.

Stewart was elected to the Supreme Court in 2018 after serving as a trial court judge in Mobile for 13 years.

She was part of the Supreme Court majority that ruled on a number of wrongful death cases brought by three couples whose frozen embryos were destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic.

The judges ruled that the couples could file lawsuits for the wrongful death of a child. Stewart joined a concurring opinion, written by Associate Justice Greg Shaw, that the law of wrongful death applies to “an unborn child without distinction as to in vitro or in utero.”

Taylor is a former military prosecutor, senator and Iraq War veteran. He served as chief legal counsel to Governor Kay Ivey and as advisor and policy director to Governor Bob Riley. During his time in the Alabama Legislature, he was best known for authoring the renewal of the state’s ethics law, which was later used to prosecute former House Speaker Mike Hubbard.