Sarah H. Stewart

Chief Justice
2025 - Present

Supreme Court Associate Justice
2019 - 2025

Chief Justice Sarah Hicks Stewart was elected in November 2024 as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Prior to her election, Chief Justice Stewart served as Associate Justice on the Alabama Supreme Court for six years. Chief Justice Stewart also served for thirteen years as a Circuit Judge in Mobile, handling civil and criminal cases. When Chief Justice Stewart was appointed in 2006 by Governor Riley, she was the first female jury trial judge in Mobile. As a Circuit Judge, Chief Justice Stewart was active in the leadership of the Circuit Judges Association, serving as the state-wide Education Chair for eight years, and was elected by her fellow judges as the first female president of the Circuit Judges Association.

Chief Justice Stewart served as the co-chair on the Alabama State Bar's Professionalism in the Bench and Bar, on the Supreme Court's standing committee on the Alabama Rules of Evidence, and on many other Alabama State Bar and judicial committees. Chief Justice Stewart received the Trailblazer Award in 2022 recognizing her leadership and achievements by the Mobile Bar Association.

Prior to her appointment to the Circuit Bench in 2006, Chief Justice Stewart was in private practice for fourteen years. As a lawyer, Chief Justice Stewart was the first female president of the Mobile Young Lawyers and was very active in the Mobile Bar Association.

Chief Justice Stewart earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School in 1992, where she received the American Jurisprudence Award for the highest grade in the classes of Torts II and Evidence and was vice president of the Law Student Association.

Chief Justice Stewart earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Communication at the University of Arkansas in 1985 and 1986. While in college, she was President of the Student Government Association, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, Mortar Board, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Order of Omega, among other scholastic and leadership achievements.

Chief Justice Stewart is the daughter of the late Suzanne Weber and the late Reginald V. Hicks, and the sister of the late Charles Andrew Hicks. Chief Justice Stewart spent her childhood overseas in Libya, Australia and Indonesia while her father worked as a Petroleum Geologist for Exxon. Chief Justice Stewart attended high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Chief Justice Stewart has been married to Craig Richard Stewart, originally of Selma, for thirty-five years. They have two adult daughters. Chief Justice Stewart has been active in the Mobile community for the past thirty-two years as a member of Leadership Mobile, Junior League of Mobile, 15 Place Homeless Service Center Board, Girl Scouts of the Magic Empire Board, and Ashland Place Methodist Church.