Greg Cook
Alabama Supreme Court
Tenure
Term ends
Years in position
Predecessor
Elections and appointments
Personal
Contact
Greg Cook (Republican Party) is a judge of the Alabama Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 16, 2023. His current term ends on January 15, 2029.
Cook (Republican Party) ran for election for judge of the Alabama Supreme Court. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Cook completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Greg Cook was born on Travis Air Force Base in California. Cook served in the U.S. Air Force from 1984 to 1988 and reached the rank of captain. He earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University in 1984 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1991. Cook's career experience includes working as an attorney.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Alabama Supreme Court elections, 2022
General election
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Anita L. Kelly advanced from the Democratic primary for Alabama Supreme Court.
Republican primary election
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Greg Cook completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cook's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Greg Cook has been preparing for the Alabama Supreme Court for 30 years. He has handled a wide variety of cases – from small claims to class actions involving hundreds of millions of dollars. He has litigated cases in over 40 of Alabama’s 67 counties and in federal and state courts in more than 15 States. He is counsel of record in 41 reported appellate opinions and the Alabama Supreme Court appointed him to their Civil Rules Committee. He is the author for the newest edition of the Thomson Reuters two-volume treatise, Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure Annotated and two books for the ABA. Greg graduated from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude.
Greg is a committed Conservative Republican. He has volunteered for the Alabama Republican Party since 1992, served as the General Counsel for the Party and was selected as a delegate for President Trump.
He is running because he believes in public service. Greg served his country in the United States Air Force for four years and has volunteered for the Boy Scouts of America since 1987, currently serving as a Vice-President for the Greater Alabama Council. Greg and his wife, Kimberly have been members at Dawson Baptist for 30 years where Greg is an ordained Deacon. Greg is originally from Florence Alabama now lives in Vestavia.
Greg has received endorsements from the BCA, Alfa, the Alabama Forestry Association, the Alabama Retail Association, and the Alabama Trucking Association (among others).
- I believe in the Rule of Law. Judges should be applying the existing law rather being an activist on the bench. Nobody should be surprised by their rulings.
- Free and fair elections are vital to our state and country. I have spent 30 years volunteering with elections and will apply the Rule of Law to our elections.
- I am qualified. I have spent over 30 years studying for this job. I am boring and predictable and this is what we should want of our Supreme Court justices.
First, I am passionate about free and fair elections. Our elections are free and fair when we follow the Rule of Law - which means: (1) the law is the same for everyone, (2) the law is known and clear before the election and doesn't change during or after the election, and (3) the elections are conducted in a transparent way.
Second, I am passionate generally about the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law makes civilized and complex society possible. It protects people from arbitrary government action. It makes private property possible. It allows the people to enter into contracts. It provides predictability and certainty so that citizens can plan and invest and act without fear. It protects innovators who have new discoveries. It keeps people safe from dangerous criminals. Conceptually, the Rule of Law means (1) generality (that is, there are general rules that apply to equally to classes of persons as opposed to specific individuals), (2) publicity (that is, there are no secret laws), (3) prospective application (that is, no retroactive laws), (4) consistency (that is, no contradictory laws), (5) equality of application, and (6) certainty.
Third, I am passionate about the law and rules of court generally. I want our courts to have rules which are clear and transparent -and which our citizens and lawyers know before the dispute arises.
First, I am a man of faith. It is a core of my character. My duty to God is always at the center of my life.
Second, I am conservative. I was a Republican before it was cool to be a Republican. I believe in small government and the Rule of Law.
Third, I am a hard working nerd. I love the law and I love hard work. In short, I am boring and predictable.
The core job of an Alabama Supreme Court Justice is to get the law right. This means reading everything. It means independent research. It means understanding the language used - at the time it was drafted. It means locating and reading all of the relevant prior decisions to make sure I get the decision correct. It demands a Justice who knows the law, loves the law, and works extremely hard. I promise the public will not be disappointed with my work and decisions on the bench.
My first job was at Wendy's Hamburgers in Florence Alabama on Florence Boulevard. I learned hard work and I learned how valuable a dollar was. I only made minimum wage. I also learned that I did not like emptying grease buckets. I decided very quickly that I needed to go to college and better myself. The United States Air Force is how I earned my way through college (and they also helped with my law school tuition). I am very grateful for my time in the Air Force (and at Wendy's). It changed my life.
The Bible. It is my handbook for my life.
I am an originalist. Thus, I believe in the Rule of Law, which means that I believe the Constitution means what it says. The same theory applies to statutes, regulations, and contracts. I will start with the plain meaning of the language in these documents when I decide a case. To be more specific, I believe in "Original Public Meaning" - which means that the language should be interpreted as it was understood at the time the document was created.
As a justice, I will not have the right to impose my own view of what the law should be - I will be bound by the language use. I am not running to be a player on the field. I am running to be an umpire.
There are a number of judges who I admire. For example, I have always been a fan of Justice Scalia. He was a hero and was willing to make a difficult decision because it was the right answer - even if others did not agree with him. I am also a fan of Justice Gorsuch who follows Justice Scalia's philosophy and was a classmate of mine who worked with me on the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. On the Alabama Supreme Court, I am a fan of Justice Lyons who always tried to think deeply about every case and think about the future implications of his opinions. He was a careful justice who also was willing to make the correct decision even if it was not the easy decision or the one which he might want. Justice Harwood was also an example to all of us. He was careful, precise and only decided as much as was necessary to reach the correct result.
I am not a sitting judge. However, I have spent a good deal of my career handling appeals. I am counsel of record in 41 reported state and federal appeals cases. I am admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, the Ninth Circuit and the Second Circuit. The Alabama Supreme Court has also appointed me to their Civil Rules Committee where I have helped revise a number of different rules. In addition, I have tried a number of jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations. I think it is important that a Justice has experience in the courtroom (which I have) and experience handling appeals (which I have). I am running to be an appeals justice rather than running for a trial judge position.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Cook's campaign website stated the following:
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Rule of Law
Greg Cook is a strict constitutionalist who believes judges should apply the law as written, not legislate from the bench. Judges should be boring and predictable. Like an umpire, he believes judges should call balls and strikes, not pick winners and losers. As a legal scholar who wrote the rule book for Alabama courts and legal procedures, Greg looks at each case with a conservative jurisprudence.
Election Integrity
Greg has been on the front lines defending our voting rights and ensuring fair elections since 1992. As an attorney for the Republican Party, he has handled election law disputes in over twenty Alabama counties, protecting against voter fraud and manipulation. Greg represented conservative interests during the 2000 Bush v. Gore Florida recount. There, he saw firsthand the importance of protecting the integrity of our ballots and following the law as it is written.
Defend the Constitution
Our constitutional rights are under attack from those who seek to turn us from a constitutional republic into a socialist state. As a textualist, Greg Cook believes the Constitution should be interpreted as it was written. While liberal judges and bureaucrats believe our constitutional rights are not absolute, Greg will defend our First Amendment and Second Amendment rights.
Commitment to Public Service
As an Air Force veteran, Greg Cook has lived a life committed to service. Today, Greg continues giving back to his community as a deacon and Sunday school teacher, passing on his Christian faith to the next generation. Through his leadership with his local Boy Scout troop, Greg instills the values of patriotism, character, and service to our future leaders. His pro bono work for veterans and those who can’t afford representation in our courts show his commitment to ensuring a just result for all in our court system.[2]
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| —Greg Cook's campaign website (2022)[3]
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State supreme court judicial selection in Alabama
- See also: Judicial selection in Alabama
The nine justices on the Alabama Supreme Court are selected through partisan elections for six-year terms. They appear on partisan election ballots statewide and face re-election if they wish to serve again.[4] For more information about these elections, visit the Alabama judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- licensed to practice law for at least 10 years;
- a state resident for at least one year;
- under the age of 70 at the time of election (judges who turn 70 in office may serve until their terms expire).[5][6]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is selected by popular vote, serving in that office for his or her full six-year term.[4][7]
Vacancies
- See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts
Should a vacancy occur between regularly scheduled elections, which take place in November of even-numbered years, an interim justice is appointed by the governor. Any justice appointed in this fashion must then stand for election in the next general election occurring at least one year after taking office.[4][8]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 15, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Greg Cook | Supreme Court, “Issues,” accessed March 9, 2022
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Alabama Judicial System, "Qualification of Judges," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Judicial Retirement Laws, "Alabama: Mandatory Retirement Provisions Applicable Generally," accessed August 10, 2021
- ↑ Alabama Secretary of State, "Minimum Qualifications for Public Office," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Justia, "Article VI, Alabama Constitution - Section 152," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Judicial Selection: An Interactive Map," accessed March 23, 2023
