Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building | |
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![]() The Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building | |
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General information | |
Location | 300 Dexter Avenue Montgomery, Alabama, United States |
Coordinates | 32°22′37″N86°18′16″W / 32.37694°N 86.30444°W |
Completed | 1994 |
Cost | $35 million |
Owner | State of Alabama |
Height | |
Roof | 158 feet (48 m) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 4 above ground, 2 below |
Floor area | 338,000 square feet (31,401 m2) |
References | |
[1] |
Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building, commonly called the Alabama Judicial Building, is a state government building in Montgomery, Alabama. It houses several state judicial agencies, most notably the Supreme Court of Alabama, Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, and Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. It is the first state court building in the United States to house all three courts under one roof. [2] Additionally, it houses the State Law Library. [3]
The neoclassical-style structure was completed in 1994 at a cost of approximately $35 million. [2]
In 2001, Roy Moore, who was Chief Justice at the time, placed a Ten Commandments monument on public display in the rotunda of the building. This placement of a religious monument in a government judicial building caused a nationwide controversy. [4] [5]
The Judicial Building is a modern interpretation of neoclassical architecture. It was designed by Barganier Davis Sims Architects Associated of Montgomery and Gresham, Smith and Partners of Birmingham. Situated on a city block measuring 300 by 320 feet (91 m × 98 m), it rises to a height of 158 feet (48 m) at the top of the 100-foot (30 m) wide dome. [1] [2] [6] The building has a reinforced concrete and steel substructure, clad in Indiana limestone. A pedimented portico with ten monumental Ionic columns is centered on the front facade of the structure between projecting side-wings. The interior is arranged around a central rotunda that measures approximately 40 feet (12 m) tall and 75 feet (23 m) wide. The rotunda is faced in Carrara marble and features eight marble columns that are 34 feet (10 m) tall. [6]
The building contains 338,000 square feet (31,401 m2) of floorspace spread over six levels. A parking garage and mechanical systems are located on the basement level. The Administrative Office of Courts, Museum of Judicial History, and a visitor parking garage are located on the ground floor level. The main lobby level contains the primary entrance, as well as the State Law Library, Appellate Court Clerks' Offices, and the two-story rotunda. The Court of Civil Appeals, Court of Criminal Appeals, and their courtrooms are situated on the second level. A mezzanine level contains archival, conference, and storage rooms. The Supreme Court chamber is located on the third, top, level. It is situated above the rotunda and directly beneath the dome. [2]
Roy Moore was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama on November 7, 2000. [7] He was sworn in on January 15, 2001. It was revealed on August 1, 2001 that Moore had commissioned and placed a 5,280-pound (2,390 kg) granite replica of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Judicial Building's the night before. This was all done without the prior knowledge or consent of the other eight justices of the Supreme Court. [4]
Three lawyers then filed Glassroth v. Moore in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama against Moore in his official capacity as Chief Justice to have the monument removed. The court found in favor of the plaintiffs, citing that the display was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The District Court then entered its final judgment and injunction that ordered that it be removed from the building by August 20, 2003. Moore refused to comply. [4] [5] Thousands of protestors from around the country converged on the Judicial Building after the decision to rally against the removal of the monument. [8]
Following Moore's non-compliance, the eight Associate Justices of the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order that recognized Moore's refusal to obey a binding order of a federal court and instructed that the building manager comply with the injunction. The monument was removed from the rotunda on August 27, 2003 and put into storage. [4] [5] Due to a variety of factors, including legal appeals and potential clashes with pro-monument protesters outside of the building, the monument was not removed from the building until July 19, 2004. [9] [10] The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a complaint against Moore with the Alabama Court of the Judiciary a few days after the monument was removed from public display. Moore was subsequently removed from office on November 13, 2003 by the court. [11] In 2012, Moore was returned to his position as Chief Justice by a vote of the people and began his second term in January 2013. [12]
Beverly Howard may refer to:
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama is a United States district court in the Eleventh Circuit.
Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court case involving whether a display of the Ten Commandments on a monument given to the government at the Texas State Capitol in Austin violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Charles Allen Graddick Sr., was the 42nd attorney general of Alabama from 1979 to 1987. He later served as a judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court of the U.S. state of Alabama.
William Holcombe Pryor Jr. is an American lawyer who has served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit since 2020. He was appointed as a United States circuit judge of the court by President George W. Bush in 2004. He is a former commissioner of the United States Sentencing Commission. Previously, he was the attorney general of Alabama, from 1997 to 2004.
The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. Located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery, it was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960. Unlike every other state capitol, the Alabama Legislature does not meet there, but at the Alabama State House. The Capitol has the governor's office and otherwise functions as a museum.
The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is a court of appeal for non-criminal cases, one of the two highest judicial bodies in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and leads the judiciary of Oklahoma, the judicial branch of the government of Oklahoma.
Glassroth v. Moore, 335 F.3d 1282, and its companion case Maddox and Howard v. Moore, 229 F. Supp. 2d 1290, is a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that held a 2+1⁄2 ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the rotunda of the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama by then-Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is housed in the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in downtown Montgomery, Alabama.
Drayton Nabers Jr. is an American lawyer and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was appointed to the court in 2003 by Governor Bob Riley following Chief Justice Roy Moore's removal as a result of his refusal to remove his Ten Commandments Monument from the State Judicial Building despite a federal court order to do so, an event that attracted national media attention.
Roy Stewart Moore is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judicial misconduct by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. He was the Republican Party nominee in the 2017 U.S. Senate special election in Alabama to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, but was accused by several women of sexually assaulting them while they were underage and lost to Democratic candidate Doug Jones. Moore ran for the same Senate seat again in 2020 and lost the Republican primary.
Sue Bell Cobb is an American jurist and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, the first woman to hold that office in Alabama's history. In 2018 she unsuccessfully ran for governor of Alabama losing in the primary to Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox receiving 30 percent of the vote compared to his 52 percent.
James R. Winchester is an American lawyer and judge who has served as on the Oklahoma Supreme Court for district 5 since 2000. He had two-year terms as chief justice of the Supreme Court beginning in 2007 and 2017.
Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S. 460 (2009), is a decision from the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled on the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on a government establishment of religion specifically with respect to monuments on public land.
The Foundation for Moral Law is a socially conservative, Christian right legal advocacy group based in Montgomery, Alabama.
Tom Parker is an American lawyer serving as the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court since 2019. He previously served as an associate justice on the court having been elected to that position in 2004 and re-elected in 2010.
Robert Smith Vance Jr. is an American lawyer and jurist who is a circuit court judge on Alabama's 10th Judicial Circuit, located in Birmingham, Alabama.
Ten Commandments Monument may refer to:
Jean Williams Brown is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, serving from 1999 to 2005.
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