Tommy Tuberville

A Montgomery County judge said today she would rule as soon as possible on whether to dismiss a lawsuit challenging whether Sen. Tommy Tuberville meets the requirement to live in Alabama for seven years before being elected governor.

Circuit Judge Brooke E. Reid heard arguments from lawyers for two-and-a-half hours Monday afternoon.

Lawyers for Tuberville said the Alabama constitution and state law are clear that the court does not have jurisdiction in the case.

“The plaintiffs have a mountain to climb,” Joe Espy, an attorney for Tuberville, told the judge.

“And they’re barely at the base with nowhere to go.”

The plaintiffs in the case, filed June 17, are asking the court to rule that Tuberville is not eligible to run for governor because he has not met the requirement in the Alabama constitution to live in the state for seven years before the election.

Espy said the plaintiffs can show no case with a precedent for what they are asking the court to do - disqualify a nominee.

Barry Ragsdale, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said that is because the circumstances are unprecedented.

“We’ve never had an out-of-stater to run for governor,” Ragsdale said.

The Alabama Republican Party ruled for Tuberville two weeks ago on a residency challenge filed by his primary opponent, Ken McFeeters.

Tuberville says he started living in Auburn in 2019. He switched his driver’s license and voter registration to Alabama that year.

Ragsdale said Tuberville has presented a “paper trail” that purports to show he meets the residency requirement but that questions remain and should be heard in court.

The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial.

Tuberville defeated McFeeters in the May 19 primary and is slated to face former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee, on Nov. 3.

Tuberville’s lawyers say the next legal recourse would be a challenge filed with the state Legislature after the election in November.

“The law tells you exactly how to contest an election,” Espy said.

Ragsdale said that would amount to allowing the Republican Party to decide on whether Tuberville meets the constitutional standard, because Republicans hold about three-fourths of the seats in the Legislature.

Espy said the law is clear that the Legislature, not the courts, have jurisdiction.

Tuberville did not attend Monday’s hearing, where the arguments were not about the senator’s residency, but only whether the court had jurisdiction to hear the facts and make a ruling in the case.

Reid said she had read all the briefs filed by the lawyers on both sides and would take into consideration the arguments they made Monday.

The judge said there were no case precedents to give her specific guidance on the question of whether the court has jurisdiction.

“It’s not a well-settled issue in my opinion,” Reid said.

“I understand the arguments on both sides,” the judge said.

Reid said her decision will not be the final word.

She said that would come from the Alabama Supreme Court on appeal.