Judge Chris McCool spoke recently at a meeting of the St. Clair Republican Party meeting. McCool, a Republican, presently serves on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. He is running for an open spot on the Alabama Supreme Court.
State Representative Jim Hill (R-Odenville), a former circuit judge and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced McCool.
“He lives on the same farm he grew up on,” Hill said of McCool. “He has been married for thirty years and has four children. He is a former District Attorney.”
“He graduated from the University of Alabama summa cum laude,” Hill said. “With those kinds of credentials, he could have gone to any of the biggest law firms in the country or gone to Wall Street. He didn’t go to Wall Street; he went back to Gordo.”
“I wholeheartedly endorse him to be on the Alabama Supreme Court,” Rep. Hill said.
McCool serves on the Court of Criminal Appeals with former St. Clair County District Attorney Richard Minor and former Jefferson County Judge Bill Cole.
Cole was also in attendance, asking voters to reelect him to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
“Judge Cole, Judge Minor, and I ran together for the Court of Criminal Appeals. Now they are three of my best friends,” McCool said.
McCool said that Associate Justice Sara Stewart is running for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Tom Parker cannot run again because of the state’s judicial age limits.
McCool explained, “Justice Sara Stewart is running for chief justice. I am running for the open associate justice position she is vacating.”
“I was born on a farm ten miles north of Gordo,” said McCool. “I ran it when my daddy got sick. I still manage it.”
“I started out in private practice in Gordo,” McCool said. “I was the only attorney in Gordo.”
“I was a prosecutor for 24 years,” McCool explained. “I have prosecuted everything from capital murder to hunting from a public road.”
McCool said that the game wardens insisted on bringing the hunting from a public road case to trial against his advice. They lost.
“You aren’t going to win one of those in Lamar County,” McCool said.
McCool said that his experience as a district attorney and an appellate judge means that when a criminal case comes before the Supreme Court, “We know what we are looking at. If I am elected, I will have the most expertise of any justice up there in the criminal system.”
“This is why I am running,” McCool said. “I believe it is important that we have judges and justices that have a conservative judicial philosophy.”
“You don’t need judges that go up there that will legislate from the bench,” McCool said. “The United States Supreme Court is kicking issues back to the state that should have been in the state legislatures from the beginning. One of these is the Dobbs decision.”
“I believe in standing on what the law says – the black words on the page,” McCool said. “We have a good Supreme Court with a conservative judicial philosophy, and I want to keep it that way,”
Republican qualifying begins on October 16. Contact Chairman Freddie Turrentine if interested in qualifying to run for a county office in 2024.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the St. Clair County Republican Party is in January.
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