The rain was coming down in sheets the day Tiara Young Hudson won the Democratic primary for circuit court judge in the Alabama county she has long served as a public defender. Voters were undeterred. When the ballots were counted in Jefferson County, the most populous and most diverse in the state, they showed that more than 31,000 people had braved the storm to vote in the primary on that day in May. Fifty-four percent of them chose Hudson. With no Republican challenger in the race, the outcome was tantamount to victory for Hudson in the general election in November. The attorney, wife, mother and dedicated churchgoer rejoiced, thanking her family and God in a public Facebook post. Hudson was on track to be the first public defender to serve as a judge on the Jefferson County circuit court, and the first Black woman with a background as a public defender to serve on the bench anywhere in Alabama. The celebration was short-lived. Just over two weeks later a state commission, divided along racial lines, dissolved the judgeship Hudson had effectively won. First, Circuit Judge Clyde Jones resigned from the seat, eight days after the May 24 primary and seven months before the end of his term. That gave the Judicial Resources Allocation Commission (JRAC) – created by Alabama’s Republican-dominated Legislature in 2017 – the opportunity to consider transferring his seat. The next week, the commission voted to permanently relocate the seat from Jefferson County, where the crime rate is the highest in Alabama, to majority-white Madison County. All three Black members of the commission voted against transferring the judgeship. All eight white members voted in favor. Ignoring the Voters: Alabama commission dissolves judicial seat won by Black woman This is foul, but what else do you expect from a place like Alabama
