A Seat on the Bench: Grant Blackburn Steps Up

Here in Baldwin County, people want a judge who understands real life. Someone who knows the law, respects the courtroom, and treats people fairly when it matters most.

We sit down with Grant Blackburn, candidate for Baldwin County District Court Judge, to hear his story, why he’s running, and what he believes a judge should bring to the bench.

Blackburn talks about being a lifelong Baldwin County resident with a strong legal background and a commitment to serving this community in a just and fir  way. Tonight, we highlight that experience and what it means for the people who will stand in his courtroom.

From everyday cases to decisions that can change someone’s path, this is a role that requires fairness, consistency, and good judgment.

Join Blair Castro and Thomas Jenkins as we sit down with Grant Blackburn right here on "The People’s Voice!"

👉 Learn more about Grant Blackburn here:

https://blackburnfordistrictjudge.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, welcome to WFUZ TV. I'm Blair Castro here with Thomas Jenkins. And today we have Grant Blackburn in the studio with us today. He's running for Baldwin County District Court Judge. Mr. Blackburn, thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Thank you for having me both. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

So can you tell us a little bit about what a district court judge actually does? What kind of cases do you take?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Yeah, so we have two trial courts in Baldwin County. We have the district court, which obviously is what I'm running for, and the circuit court. And the jurisdictional differences on the civil side are monetary. If you are seeking more than$20,000 on a civil claim, you would bring that in circuit court. The jurisdictional limits of district court are up to$20,000. So in that sense, some people refer to it as small claims court. A lot of pro se litigants on the civil side, lots of small claims, evictions, unlawful detainers happen in the district court. And on the criminal side, the district court uh tries misdemeanor cases and also conducts preliminary hearings and bond hearings for felony cases. So those are like the early stages of a felony proceeding. Um and then if a felony case gets um gets if there's an indictment on the grand jury, then the trial actually happens in the circuit court.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

So that's a lot of cases. It's a wide variety of things.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

A lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Going to your background, um, what makes you think that you are the best fit given your legal experience and what kind of legal experience do you have that lends you to being a district court judge?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Sure. Um, my background, well, I guess I'll I'll back up. I graduated from Cumberland School of Law in 2012 and had some opportunities to stay in Birmingham, um, clerked for some of the big firms up there, and I just I missed Baldwin County. I was ready to come home. I'm a third generation Baldwin County lawyer, and chose to come back and go into practice with my father, Blackburn and Connor. PC was our firm. It was me, David Connor, uh, Dan Blackburn, uh, Mark Topeka for a while was a partner, and Becky Gaines. And we practiced together. Um, it started in 2012, and really I did everything on the civil side that that I think you could sort of imagine from uh collections cases and unlawful detainers in district court to um bench and jury trials in circuit court in Baldwin County. Uh practiced a pretty good deal in Mobile County over the years, and um especially recently uh trying cases in the federal district courts. That's a different district court. There's it's a little confusing, but the Baldwin County District Court is what I just described to you. Um in the federal system, the district court is the federal trial court. So I have a fair amount of practice history in the district uh federal trial courts over in Mobile. And I've also handled appeals to Alabama's courts of civil appeals, Alabama's Supreme Court. And uh really in recent years, that's that's where I've I've really enjoyed my practice the most, was um doing appellate litigation. And um for the last five or six years, I've really focused my practice on constitutional land use litigation in federal court, representing uh large groups of landowners against different governmental fees that are maybe too far across the constitutional fence and need to be corrected. Um so all that being said, you know, your question is, you know, why am I qualified? Everyone, I'm sure, has their own opinion of what uh makes a good judge. But uh my opinion is there are two main things. One is your temperament on the bench. Absolutely. How do you treat people? Um, the other thing, probably more pragmatic and more important, is what is your ability to apply the facts to the law? Okay. And the nature of my practice history has involved more complex stuff, to boil it down. Constitutional arguments, complex civil litigation involving whether it be land use or a business dispute or something like that. You know, I I tried all different types of cases, and all those different litigated files would present almost always a different aspect of the law and always different facts. And what I felt that I became proficient with was applying the law to those facts, but also being a student of the law and researching in every case, and to never assume that I know what the law is, it's a pitfall, I think that lawyers can fall into is thinking that they know something when perhaps it changed very recently, whether that's a decision from an appellate court or a statutory amendment or whatever. So researching the law, making sure you know it, and diligently applying the law of the facts. That's what I've done, uh, I believe, at a pretty high level since I passed the bar and started practicing in 2012. And if I'm fortunate to serve on the district bench, I'll bring that same level of dedication and proficiency and exactitude to the types of cases that come before the district court.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

So straight to a hot button issue, and we were talking a little bit about it uh when you got here. Uh, with your experience in land use litigation, what is your take on the Stockton solar farm situation? Oh man, that is a hot button issue.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Um but it's a fair question, and you know, I'm tempted almost as a judicial candidate to say I shouldn't talk about it, but I'll talk about it. Um and the bigger issue really is, and it's countywide, that's really the best and most acute example of what's going on here now with all the growth that we have. And, you know, first of all, I like I said, I'm I guess I'm fifth generation in Baldwin County. And so I miss the old days. You know, I miss having a catalog in in Robertsdale. I miss being able to dove hunt out east of Fairhope before it was covered up with subdivisions. But we're also very blessed and fortunate here to have so many people and to have, you know, everybody wants to live here for a reason. Right. And with that comes this intersection of private property rights and what I call, you know, land stewardship or land ethic. Okay. Whether it's the solar farm or whether it is uh farmland in Alberta or Foley or something like that, you get to the same crossroads every time. And the crossroads is if I'm a farmer or if I'm whoever owns the solar farmland up in Stockholm, why own it? It's mine. And as a property lawyer, I don't like the government telling me what I can and can't do with what I own. Okay. But on the other hand, um, I I think y'all maybe know from my website, I'm on the Board of Mobile Baykeeper. I mean, personally, I have a very strong land ethic. You know, so uh in my life, um, the pieces of property that I've owned and that my family have owned, um, you know, we're my family's kind of that way. And we have attempted to be good stewards of the land that we have. But I talked about this before with people, and and I think that the only answer, and I don't think this is a cop-out, uh, I really think this is the truth, is that if we're going to have orderly and appropriate development in this county, the players on both sides have to respect the rule of law. And let me elaborate a little bit so it doesn't sound like a total cop out. On the developer side, it means doing what you're supposed to do, following the different land use regulations, following what the city or the state or whatever regulatory agency might have oversight over the project actually requires of you. Um, and on the city side, it means not abusing the inherent power of the municipality or the county or whatever the case may be to over-regulate a project or prohibit a project that's otherwise lawful just because it's unpopular. And, you know, how do we get ahead of that? It's with good land use planning, it's with good county government, you know, those decisions happen, those are not in my in my orbit as a district judge. But being proactive and forward-looking as a county is how you can avoid, you know, sort of the the really, I guess, the the difficult points at that intersection where you have big things like the solar farm that blow up. Um you know, it's it's inevitable. But without a without both sides playing by the rules, um development's not going to be orderly and it's not going to be good. Um, you know, a lot of what I've done in my practice um as a real estate attorney has been from time to time, it does involve soon a municipality if, for example, my client has applied for something that's lawful at the time and the city changes the law after the client applies and otherwise meets the standards. Well, I mean, that's I don't think many people would tell you that's fair. Um, but you know, on the other side, I've uh I've been on the side of governmental entities where a particular developer was cutting corners and whether that resulted in runoff or environmental degradation or something like that. So both sides have to play by the rules, both sides have to respect the rule of law. And the way to really get ahead of it is with good land use planning, and that's at a county level.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

So this is, I don't know, more of a lesson for the public than a question, but it's kind of a question. Hypothetically speaking, let's say you live in a municipality, a city, and they have an ordinance that is perhaps unconstitutional. Perhaps it is a tree ordinance that says you have you can't cut down a tree on your own property if it's over six inches in diameter. Um, and the only way you can cut it down is if you apply for a permit and then you have to go for a board and you have to, so people, you know, in the public are like, that seems a little unconstitutional. And they bring it up to the mayor and the people and they say, well, then nothing we can do about it because there hasn't been a negative action taken. So I think people, when they see unconstitutional ordinances, sometimes the way to challenge that actually, somebody has to be the one to cut down the tree to get the fine and then bring it forth. There has to be that action before you can really contest it. So I guess my question being your line of work, is that the kind of thing that you've seen happen before?

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Well, not necessarily with the tree ordinance, but there are times when, you know, I've represented clients who didn't want to poke the bear, but they did very deservingly want to have clarity on a particular issue or at that regulatory issue, whether that be zoning or you know, subdivision regulation or something like that. And the appropriate way to do that is, and I and I think the very diplomatic way to do that is by bringing the declaratory judgment action, which is a statutory procedure that's allowed in the state of Alabama to go to a circuit judge, not a district judge, to go to a circuit judge and say, hey, we have an actual controversy, an actual dispute. I think X, the city thinks Y. The court may determine Z, but you put the issue to the court in a declaratory judgment without demanding um money from the governmental entity in question. But that's how I have done that in the past. And I have tried when I've done that to do it in a way that is diplomatic. And most of the time, whether it be the city or the county, um, or it does, it can also be applied between private parties, uh, it it's a sometimes a good middle-of-the-road way to get judicial clarity on what the law is, whether a particular thing is constitutional or not, without having to go that extra step and put all your tips on the table and your example say, well, I'm going to cut the tree down and see what see what happens. The declaratory judgment action is a good way to get ahead of that.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

That's interesting. So I'm I'm that annoying person who brings forth why I think something's unconstitutional to the mayor or to the city council all the time, and they go, Oh no, she's here again telling us we're being unconstitutional, and then they just roll their eyes. So I feel like sometimes somebody it does have to be the one to cut down the tree or do what it is, or else they're never really gonna care. But I like your tactic as well.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Well, I've diplomatically I found a lot of the time that, you know, presentation is so much of it. And when you have a good relationship, or you know, the city, a lot of cities, you know, over the years I've been adverse with them. And you know, I still hope at least that we have common respect because, you know, I respect the people that I bring the litigation against. I don't think, well, I I really can't, I don't think I can remember an instance where I felt like someone was, you know, intentionally trying to do something wrong. Uh we're human, we make mistakes. And, you know, uh judges, city council members, planning commissioners, you know, we're all we're all subject to flaw and and to get it wrong sometimes. And so I've always tried at least to uh or often tried to approach it delicately. And and sometimes you can't agree. And there have been times when I've said, well, hey, look, you know, don't hate me, but I'm gonna file a deck action to see what happens. And so there are some people who you tell them that you're gonna file a declaratory judgment action and they think that you're homing for blood, and and they take it like you're, you know, suing them for a million dollars. Well, that's not in fact the case. But yeah, that that's the procedural vehicle that we would use to approach the issue you just mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah. So before we started, you were talking a little bit about people spreading some false information about your experience. Do you want to go into that?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, I don't mind going into it. And I don't think it was on purpose. Um, but there was an article in the Lanyat last week that said I had not I think it said my name had not appeared on a litigated file uh since 2022, statewide in the state of Alabama. And uh, you know, I I don't think that was the intentional, but it was it was uh completely incorrect. Um a lot of my practice for the last I don't know, five years has been in federal court. A lot of it's been in our state appellate courts, and some of it has been um in the in the Balling County Circuit Court. Um but my practice was really uh litigation heavy for the first 10 years or so. And about five years ago, we learned that my daughter has a rare genetic condition. We didn't know what it was at the time. We just realized that she had some challenges, and since then we've learned that she has a rare genetic condition that causes autism and developmental delay and a host of issues. Um, and that was all it came at a bad time for me because professionally had a lot going on um in my law practice and was litigating heavily, like I said before. And I was just sort of at a crossroads where I needed to decide what I was gonna do as a dad and as a lawyer, as a professional. And uh to make a really long story short, I stopped doing a lot of the day-to-day stuff that I would take to pay the bills and keep the lights on with the firm. Um the firm was downsizing at the time. And so I focused in my practice on appellate litigation, constitutional federal land use litigation, and really I just started taking the right cases. Um I I stepped away from the things I didn't like and focused on the things I did. And I thought at the time that it was a terrible career move just because, you know, logically, you would think you have you you think you have fewer clients, you'll make less money, it'll be harder to make a living. And, you know, it's just one of those things where I don't know how to describe it, but the gains just multiplied and things worked out the right way. And I've had more fun doing that really in the last five years, focusing on the type of stuff that I like and trying many fewer cases than I did before and giving them a lot more attention, uh, handling appeals and taking the right appeals and working with other lawyers on cases where they need consultation and assistance. And um it's just worked out so great that I've been able to do that, keep my practice active in a, I think a fairly sophisticated way, but also have the time that I needed to figure out kind of what was going on with my home wife and with our daughter. So um, yeah, that's that's all kind of personal, and I I usually don't go into all that, but you know, it's it's a fair question. Um, my opponent the other day, and this I'm I'm not I'll say that I personally like my opponent pretty good people. We had a debate last week, and he described his practice as door law. And if you don't know what that is, it's you know a door lawyer, it's like I'll represent whoever comes in the door, and that's a great way to practice law. I mean, and I think he's been really successful with it. Um my practice is is very different from that, though. I, you know, I'm I'm the type of lawyer that will take the right case that I want to work on when it comes in. And um, you know, just uh that's just how I've structured my work and my my work-life balance, and it's worked out well. Um but but but yeah, so I I don't think the Lanyap article was to fibret. I I think my father retired. I don't remember when his last litigated case was, but my suspicion is that they pulled his attorney identifier and didn't see any cases or something like that. I don't know. But but yeah, thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak about that because I read the article and I was really frustrated. Uh, but you know, it's the nature of this business. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I think people don't realize how time consuming being a really active practicing attorney is as someone who is not never like I graduated law school in 2012 too, by the way, same year. Um, and absolutely was like, I cannot go to court every single day and be working at the I was doing regional conflict council, like doing some sort of work like that for low pay and grinding it out like hours and hours and hours in tons of cases. Like that was not the life for me. Immediately I was like, no, this isn't like not my path. I want to be, I don't think I can be a door lawyer. I want to be um just the person who's on a retainer to challenge the unconstitutional ordinances that I see the cities. That's like all I really have interest in doing. And I teach and I I just it's for some people it wasn't for me. And that is a main reason why the flexibility isn't there and the commitment is so great. And I respect anyone that can do it because, like I said, I I just couldn't be my life.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, and I'm really fortunate that I've been able to structure my practice the way that I have. It's a blessing, and I mean that. Um and that, you know, the last five years I've had more fun practicing law than I did in the first ten. I've been appointed to serve as class counsel in in one or two of these cases for hundreds or thousands of people seeking relief under these unconstitutional ordinances. And so it's been it's been rewarding, it's been fun. And um, in another, well, obviously, here we are running for district court judge. A benefit is that I have the time to devote to doing things like this and seeking election to the bench. So it's been a cool timeline.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Can you talk a little bit more about uh where you live in Baldwin County, how long you've been here, your family, and kind of like your civic engagement? Yeah, sure. Um, so we live okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

I grew up in Bayonette, and I tell anybody who will listen that I'm from Bayonette. I I believe that even though I moved to Montrose in the eighth grade, graduated from Bayside, and my wife, I met my wife in high school, and so she's like, Oh, we're from we're from Fair Hope. No, I'm from Baymanette. I love Fairhope and I lived there for a long time. Lived in Silver Hill, now we live in Orange Beach. But um, you know, I always say that that my uh, you know, the my personality was kind of fully formed growing up in Bayman Ed was a great place to be as a kid. And um anyway, grew up there, like I said, graduated from Bayside, went to Cumberland, moved back to Silver Hill in 2012, and built a house in Orange Beach in 2015. And man, since 2015, the island's just blown up. It's gotten so busy. Yeah, so busy. Um, but yeah, married, married my high school sweetheart. That's probably the best credential I have is that I haven't chased her away yet. She's we were married in 2020. No, yeah, 2011. Several people. Yeah, I shouldn't have gone there. Yeah, but we've got two little kids. Evie, my daughter, who I mentioned a minute ago, is seven. Our son is nine. And um yeah, civic engagement. I mentioned that I'm on the board of Mobile Bay Keeper. Uh we go to church at Orange Beach Church on Bear Point and uh have raised money for the National MS Society over the years. Um I I don't know, been involved in in different kinds of things around the county. But uh, you know, for the first 12 years of my practice, I was in the office every day trying to fill as many hours as I could and wanted to be the first one there and the last to leave. And that's a it's a good way to be as a as a young lawyer. Um, but eventually worked to a point where I could have a little more time. Yeah. But uh, but yeah, we we we like Orange Beach and we're happy down there. Uh for a while the commute back and forth to Bay Munet was not great. So I was able to open up. Up in office um with my former law partner, uh Martin Peak at Orange Beach title. And I was able to stay on the island, and that was great. That was a great reprieve.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Do you think we'll ever have any kind of satellite courthouse here down in on the island? You know, I doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

We've gotten the one in Foley. Um and so I think it'd be a pretty tough sell to say we needed uh Orange Beach uh Bear Point satellite courthouse. Now, if they did it, I wouldn't complain. But I don't think that's in the cards.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

We had Tony Kennan on here. And he uh Tony Kennan said he would be down for it. So it's on a world episode. Check it out.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Tony's down, let's build it. I'll serve there.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

I was literally gonna ask that same question. I was thinking you said the drive bayonet, and I was like, oh, we know that drive to baby net is not a good one.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

You know, for the first you know, month of doing it, it was nice. It was nice. You know, you get the podcast on or you get the radio going. After about a month of doing it, it's like, okay, I I think I would just prefer about a 15-minute commute instead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

What do you expect your courtroom to be like? What do you envision your courtroom decorum to be? And how do you think the aura, I guess, of your courtroom would be? What is your plan for that?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

I actually really like that question. That's not something that I've thought about specifically a lot, but that puts me in the position of talking about how I perceive myself, which is always kind of dangerous. You know, but I've people have told me my whole life that I have a good demeanor as an attorney and as a I said my whole life, my professional life. Um, you know, I'm litigating is inherently adversarial, and you're always crossed up with somebody. One of my, and that this is an anecdote that I'll tell it and in a very roundabout way, I think answer your question. There's a lady who I was completely opposed to on a real estate deal in Orange Beach about five years ago, maybe six years ago. And when we last spoke, we were, I went to her house to try and persuade her to come around to my way of thinking, and it didn't work, and we left and very much opposed. Um, she has no reason to like me that I know of. And when she found out that I was running for district court judge, she called me and she said, I just want you to know that you've got my support because I know how you are when you're mad or when you're in an adverse, I'm sorry, adversarial um situation with somebody. And that meant more to me almost than you know, my wife's endorsement. My wife kind of, you know, she doesn't have to support me, but she does. I kind of expect her to. But someone I've been adverse to, I don't really expect their support. And that meant a lot to me because it was sort of an objective affirmation of my, I think of my demeanor. And um, you know, she's not the only person to tell me that over the years. I I think I'm generally slow to anger. Uh, sometimes that made it hard as a as a litigator representing clients who are, you know, most of the time pretty angry with the other side in court. And my disposition has always been to try and see both sides. Because truthfully, I think I represent my client better if I understand where the other side's coming from. You know, you understand their motivations and helps you work the case out or try the case. Uh but that did make it hard sometimes as a litigator because my client would, in one way or another, say, well, you know, why are you thinking about it from their side? Because you're on my side. You're supposed to be thinking about how to, you know, rub their face in the dirt. But that's just the way that I'm wired. And I think that in a lot of ways, that sets me up to be um potentially a better judge than I was a litigator. So, to your question, what would the uh the the ambiance of my courtroom be? I can tell you that there would always be respect from the bench for anyone who comes into court, you know, even the difficult people. It doesn't mean I wouldn't hold somebody in contempt. It just means that you do so respectfully. We're all human beings, we're all people trying to make it on the earth. Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing I would say is efficiency. The dockets in district court are huge. Um there are, you know, at any time, hundreds of criminal cases on a docket that need to be dealt with. Uh a pile of civil cases. I mean, when I would go in and try civil cases, we represented, I'm backing up a little bit, but our firm represented Baldwin County as county attorneys for years, and we represented Baldwin EMC as counsel for the co-op. And in connection with that, I would go to collections cases in district court. And man, that there would be a courtroom full of lawyers and pro se people, and then the and then there's the judges got a criminal docket probably the same day. So you got to work through all that stuff, okay? And that that means that you got to work hard, sometimes get there early and stay late, a lot of times, but also be efficient and be consistent with the people who come into court, be consistent with how you treat people. So efficiency would be the second thing I would say. Um and maybe the most important thing is that I would hope that people would think about my courtroom as a place where more often than not, the judge cares enough to work hard to get it right. Um, like I said earlier, we we are not encyclopedias of the law. Uh we judges call balls and strikes, and judges learn, you know, on the civil side. That's why judges have attorneys prepare briefs on the cases to educate the judge about the law and the facts and how that attorney thinks the law and the facts should apply to one another. Um so the third thing that I hope people would affiliate with my courtroom is uh that the judge is a student of the law and serious about getting that right every time. Um, that doesn't mean I will. I I'm human and I'm sure that you know we all make mistakes. But I want people to have confidence in knowing that if they elect me, they've got a guy who is very serious and very passionate about getting the law right.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Thank you so much for coming out here with us today. If you could tell everyone where they can find you out online or how to contact you. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Uh my website is Blackburnfordistrictjudge.com. You can find me there or on Facebook, Grant Blackburn for District Judge. Um, those are the two primary platforms that I'm on that you guys can find me at. I'd be happy to respond to anybody on Facebook or through the website, reach out if you got any questions. I'd be more than happy to talk to you. Right, and your primary is May 19th. May yeah, May 19th. My name is Grant Blackford, running for district court judge, and I'd be honored to earn your vote.