Judge Kelley

Judge Jeff Kelley speaks to the Enterprise Rotary Club.

Coffee County Circuit Judge Jeff Kelley spoke at the Enterprise Rotary Club on Oct. 21 and broke down each of the constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot for every Alabamian on Nov. 3.

Amendment I will see Alabamians vote on whether or not one single word in Article VIII of the constitution.

“If it passes it will not add one word to the constitution, as far as numbers wise, it will just change one word,” Kelley explained. “Right now, the constitution grants every U.S. citizen that is 18 years old or older – and meets certain qualifications – the right to vote in Alabama. This amendment takes the word every out and replaces it with only.”

Kelley said that there has been some concern in some areas that the way the constitution is worded that it could allow certain cities or counties to give undocumented citizens the right to vote in local elections.

“You have some people that are concerned that the language is broad,” Kelley said. “It looks like to me it’s pretty close to the same, however this was a national movement to do this because of some concerns that some local jurisdictions have granted the right to vote to non-citizens.

“So, say the City of Enterprise gives non-citizens the right to vote for city council I don’t know that it would be unconstitutional to do that given the way it is currently written. It says that every citizen has the right to vote not only U.S. citizens have the right. That appears to be the catalyst.”

Amendment II involves the Judiciary Inquiry Commission. This amendment would change the way the Administrative Director of Courts is selected. Currently, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court selects the director but the amendment would allow for the entire Supreme Court to select the director, who would then serve a 10-year term.

“Over the last 17 years, since I’ve been in office, I believe that there have been eight or nine different administrator directors of the court,” Kelley said. “This is primarily about having some consistency there. It has changed about every one or two years, which has created some concern.

“The courts employ more than 2,400 employees and a budget in excess of $2 million, which the administrative director of courts oversees.”

Amendment II would create a committee that would interview potential candidates and then that committee would provide three names to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court would then either select one of the three to serve a 10-year term or ask the committee to provide three more names for them to choose from.

Also, this amendment would make some changes to the Judicial Inquiry Commission. This commission is responsible for investigating judges that a complaint is filed against or some sort of misconduct has been alleged of a judge.

The changes would see the addition of two more members of the commission. It would add a representative of municipal court judges and probate judges. Representatives for circuit judges, appellate court judges and district judges are already a part of the commission. Also, the lieutenant governor currently selects some laypersons to the commission, but Amendment II would allow for the governor to appoint those laypersons instead.

Also, currently a judge is automatically suspended when any kind of charges are brought against them – no matter how minor – and this amendment would provide the commission the opportunity to not suspend judges or minor offenses.

“This is probably the only (amendment) I will take a position on,” Kelley said. “I helped work with the committee on this and I think this stability and continuity it would provide would benefit the courts in the long term. That’s my personal opinion.”

Amendment III would provide that any judge – other than a probate judge – that is appointed to fill a vacancy would have the opportunity to serve two years before facing a general election. The current law sees appointed judges serve one year before facing a general election.

“The idea behind this is that the judge gets appointed and then is just running (a campaign) and isn’t learning how to do the job and no one is finding out what kind of judge you’ll be,” Kelley said. “Basically, they’re getting paid to run a campaign. The amendment would allow them to get used to the office and get their feet wet and see what kind of judge they’ll be.

“Also, a more experienced judge might not be willing to close down their law practice to be there for just one year and so maybe more experienced judges will be willing to accept appointments if they know they’ll get at least two years.”

Amendment IV will likely be the shortest amendment on the ballot – in terms of number of words – but may be the one that has the most impact, as it would provide the Alabama legislature the ability to rewrite the Alabama Constitution.

“It would give them the chance to remove some language in the constitution that has been declared unconstitutional since 1901 and to take out some alleged racist language that is in the constitution,” Kelley said. “Once you open that up and rewrite the constitution that can be very broad.”

Kelley said that it would also give the legislature a chance to possibly shorten the constitution as well as removing terms and words that are outdated, as well. Also, Alabama’s constitution is so long that it is the longest constitution in the entire world.

While voters may be wary about legislators rewriting the constitution, regardless the voters would have the opportunity to decide whatever they create in its place is adopted or not.

“I have some reservations for this one both ways,” Kelley said. “It would maybe reduce the length of the constitution. Does it need to be rewritten and maybe some language taken out and just made shorter? Yes, probably so but we won’t know what else goes in there and you can bet that special interests will be there for everything.

“One good thing is that if it does pass and the legislature approves their version then it still has to be ratified by the voters of the State of Alabama.”

Amendment V and Amendment VI only involve laws in Franklin County and Lauderdale County but the entire state must approve them. These amendments “provide that a person is not liable for using deadly physical force in self-defense or defense of another person on the premises of a church under certain conditions.” Kelley said that these amendments are puzzling because the state already has laws on the books that would allow for people to defend themselves anywhere, not just in churches.

“The problem is we already have that law and the attorney general is opposed to this because right now, we already have it,” Kelley said. “To me I think this why we have a constitution so long already. If it is important it needs to apply to every county in the state is the way I look at it.”

Those amendments will be voted on Nov. 3. Additionally, the U.S. Presidency will be up for grabs between incumbent Donald Trump (R), Joe Biden (D) and Jo Jorgensen (I).

Incumbent Doug Jones (D) is facing Tommy Tuberville (R) for U.S. Senator, while Enterprise native Barry Moore (R) faces Phyllis Harvey-Hall (D) in the second congressional district for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Greg Shaw (R) is running unopposed for associate justice of the Supreme Court, Place No. 1. Brad Mendheim (R) is also running unopposed for Place No. 2.

Bill Thompson is running unopposed for Court of Civil Appeals Judge, Place No. 1, while Matt Fridy (R) is running unopposed for Place No. 2.

Beth Kellum (R) is running unopposed for Court of Criminal Appeals Judge, Place No. 2, while Mary Windom (R) is running unopposed for Place No. 1.

Laura Casey (D) and Twinkle Cavanaugh (R) are running for Public Service Commission President.

Josh Wilson (R) is running unopposed for Coffee County District Court Judge, Place No. 1. Ronnie Burns (R) is running unopposed for Coffee County Revenue Commissioner.

Dean Smith (R) is facing Hilton Morgan III (I) for Coffee County Commission, District 1. Kim Ellis (R) is running unopposed in District 2, Josh Carnley (R) is running unopposed in District 3, Al Britt (R) is running unopposed in District 4, Jimmy Jones (D) is running unopposed in District 5, Jim Thompson (R) is running unopposed in District 6 and Tom Grimsley (R) is running unopposed in District 7.

Brian McLeod (R) is running unopposed for Coffee County School Board, District 1, while Sherry Eddins (R) is running unopposed in District 7.

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