Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd (AL.com)
A former Jefferson County judge is suing Chicago, arguing that city rescinded a job offer after she left her seat on the bench to work there.
Tracie Todd, who served as a circuit criminal judge in the Birmingham division of Jefferson County for over a decade, left her position for a job as a city attorney in Chicago. Her departure came after years of battles with Alabama’s higher courts, some over a ruling she issued calling Alabama’s capital murder sentencing scheme unconstitutional.
Todd, who now lives in Cook County, Illinois, first took the bench after being elected as a Democrat in 2012. She was reelected in 2018, and if she had stayed in the Magic City, her term would have expired in 2025. She resigned last year.
She moved to Chicago in 2021, and the following year an Alabama commission said she had been in the Windy City for two months when she was supposed to be working in Birmingham. She was accused of not following the Court of the Judiciary’s order to return to work on Dec. 6 of that year to begin a period of 90 days without pay, a sanction imposed for ethical violations.
Her tenure was marred by controversy. In 2016, Todd ruled that Alabama’s capital murder sentencing scheme was unconstitutional and barred the death penalty for four men who had been charged in three murders. She said the practice of allowing judges to override jury recommendations of life without parole and instead impose the death penalty was unconstitutional.
That practice has since been outlawed in the state, making Alabama the last state to ban judicial override.
In the same ruling, she made several other observations about the state’s death penalty, including that judges imposed it more often during or near election years; that there wasn’t a standard system for assigning capital cases to judges; that Alabama executes more people than other, larger states; and Alabama doesn’t fund enough staff for its judges.
Her lawsuit, filed last month in Cook County, called that decision a “landmark ruling.”
“Following her courageous and powerful ruling, conservatives in Alabama did everything possible to besmirch and hurt Tracie’s standing as a Judge, including by filing complaints with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, which resulted in a 90-day suspension of Todd’s judicial duties,” said the suit.
“The political efforts to hurt Todd as a result of her now legendary stand against racism in Alabama’s administration of the death penalty are recounted in a plethora of articles online,” and cited an AL.com article among several others.
After the inquiries into her decisions, the lawsuit said, Todd became stressed and exhausted by the “political environment in Alabama.”
Todd then moved to Chicago.
Last year, she applied for a job as the assistant corporation counsel for the city of Chicago. She went through the job application process, and was offered the job in the city’s law department and labor division.
The lawsuit includes a copy of Todd’s job offer, which was set to pay her $117,804 plus benefits. Her start date was in December 2023 and her specific duties included advising the city on labor relations, union matters, unfair labor practices and more.
After accepting the job, Todd resigned from the bench in Birmingham in November 2023.
The suit says, “While the environment was stressful for her in Alabama, Tracie never would have resigned her judgeship there, unless she found alternative employment.” Todd claims the offer from Chicago was unconditional.
But then, 10 days before she was set to start the new job, the city rescinded its job offer. The rescinding notice was also included in the lawsuit filing, and no explanation was cited.
Todd argues she wouldn’t have left her judgeship if she hadn’t gotten the Chicago job, and would have continued being paid her judge’s salary and benefits.
She’s asked for a jury trial for damages.
Todd’s history with Alabama’s justice system following that 2016 ruling spanned years. In 2018, a state appeals court asked the Judicial Inquiry Commission to investigate to determine if she violated ethical rules.
In 2021, she was temporarily removed from the bench after a scathing report from the state’s Judicial Inquiry Commission. Later that year, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary found Todd guilty of violating the canons of judicial ethics and suspended her for 90 days without pay.
In 2022, Todd was once again charged by the JIC for several complaints stemming from her behavior following the earlier sanctions. Those charges were refusal and/or appearance of refusal to follow the Court of the Judiciary’s orders; making a false and/or misleading statements including to fellow judges and to the Court of the Judiciary; failing to make provisions for cases during purported illness; and disrespecting and refusing to cooperate with fellow judges in the performance of their administrative duties.
She was found guilty in October 2022 on one count of violating judicial ethics and was suspended, again, without pay for 120 days.
Todd’s attorney in the Chicago case, Cass Casper, told AL.com by email, “Chicago is in desperate need of brilliant legal talent like Tracie’s... At the very last minute, without even the courtesy of a ‘why’ or ‘from who,’ the City pulled the rug out from under her.”
“We filed this case to remind Mayor Johnson and Chicago that – as surely every Alabaman knows -- the definition of good business is honoring yours deals and commitments.”