Alabama Supreme Court justice resigning to run for another office in 2026

Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Jay Mitchell is resigning from the court to run for attorney general, Yellowhammer News reported.

The attorney general’s office is an open seat next year because AG Steve Marshall is in his second term and is barred by term limits from seeking another.

Monday is the first day candidates for office in Alabama can begin officially raising campaign funds, one year before the primary, which is May 19, 2026.

James L. “Jay” Mitchell was elected to the nine-member Alabama Supreme Court in 2018 and reelected to another six-year term last year.

Gina Maiola, communications director for Gov. Kay Ivey, said the governor has received Mitchell’s letter resigning from the court. Maiola said she expects the governor to appoint a replacement soon.

Before his election to the Supreme Court, Mitchell was a lawyer with the Maynard, Cooper & Gale firm, which is now the Maynard Nexsen firm.

According to his bio on the Supreme Court website, Mitchell was born in Mobile and grew up in south Alabama and in Homewood.

He graduated from Homewood High School and received a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, served as president of the student body, and played forward on the school’s 1995 national championship basketball team.

Mitchell holds a master of arts degree from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Read more: Who will be Alabama’s next attorney general? 6 to watch in wide open race for open seat

In February 2024, Mitchell wrote the main opinion in a court decision that said frozen embryos held in storage by in vitro fertilization clinics had the status of unborn children for purposes of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The ruling came in lawsuits filed by couples whose stored embryos were accidentally destroyed.

Some IVF clinics in Alabama paused services after the decision because of concerns about the legal liability.

Services resumed after the Legislature passed a law intended to give clinics legal protections, although the law did not address the question of whether embryos stored outside a woman’s womb are unborn children.

Mitchell becomes the second Republican to enter the attorney general race.

In January, Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey announced her candidacy for the office.

Updated at 4:53 p.m. to say the governor’s office received Mitchell’s letter of resignation.