By Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector
Plaintiffs challenging Republican gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville’s eligibility to run for governor Tuesday appealed a lower court’s dismissal of their lawsuit to the Alabama Supreme Court.
The two plaintiffs claim that the U.S. Senator does not meet the Alabama Constitution’s seven-year residency requirement to serve as governor. Attorneys filed a notice of appeal with the lower court Tuesday.
Barry Ragsdale, an attorney for the plaintiffs, wrote in an email Tuesday that briefs have not been filed in the appeal because a schedule has not been set yet.
Jordan Doufexis, chair of the Tuberville campaign, associated the case with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Doug Jones in a statement Tuesday afternoon. Ragsdale said in June that he has been working on the lawsuit since before Jones announced his candidacy in November.
“Doug Jones and his Democrat lawyers are doing exactly what everyone expected — dragging their failed residency hoax to the Alabama Supreme Court after a [Democratic] circuit judge threw it out,” Doufexis said. “The only people that question his residency are the Democrats who don’t like his policies. Coach Tuberville will keep campaigning while DC Doug keeps hiding behind lawyers because he cannot win this race on the issues. The courts have rejected this nonsense once, and we are confident they will reject it again.”
Montgomery County Circuit Judge Brooke Reid dismissed the lawsuit on Thursday, writing in her order that she does not have jurisdiction to remove Tuberville from the ballot. She did not rule on the merits of the case, and said the plaintiffs are not “estopped altogether from seeking court resolution of Constitutional eligibility to hold office.”
In June, Reid said during a hearing on the lawsuit that she expected the Alabama Supreme Court to have the final word on the case.
The plaintiffs in the case are seeking relief known as quo warranto, challenging Tuberville’s right to hold office.
Tuberville has faced questions on his residency for years. The plaintiffs’ complaint echoes many previously reported media findings, like a homestead exemption in Auburn that Tuberville said he has been on since 2018 but was not added to until mid-2024, and a 2023 Florida driver’s license.
Tuberville lived in the state while he coached football at Auburn University from 1999 to 2008, and told Alabama Daily News last year that he believes that time should contribute to his residency. The Alabama Republican Party last month rejected a challenge to Tuberville’s residency brought by Ken McFeeters, who ran against Tuberville for the party nomination and also unsuccessfully pursued a lawsuit against the U.S. senator.
The plaintiffs in the current case argued at the June hearing that the judicial branch and not political parties interpret and apply the constitution. Tuberville’s lawyers argued that the courts should not get involved whatsoever because the courts should not interfere with elections. His lawyers also argued that quo warranto actions can only apply to current office holders. Plaintiffs said Alabama courts have distinguished nominees as quasi-officers.
Reid wrote in her order that “the suggestion that courts are without authority, when properly invoked, to rule upon the constitutional eligibility of a nominee to hold office is lacking in merit.”
