Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has appointed Alisha Ruffin May to replace a domestic relations court judge ousted from the Jefferson County bench last year.

The governor appointed May to serve as circuit judge, domestic relations division, Place 20. The appointment is effective immediately.

“As one of my appointees, you will be making important decisions that directly affect the citizens of Alabama. I have made honesty and integrity a priority in my Administration, and I know that you will embody these two virtues while serving the people of Alabama,” Ivey stated in her appointment letter to May dated Oct. 21.

The Jefferson County Judicial Commission on Sept. 30 submitted May’s name, along with two others, as candidates for Ivey to consider.

Ruffin, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for the judgeship earlier this year, has served as a Senior Trial Referee in Jefferson County Family Court, according to her campaign website.

She received her undergraduate and law degree from the University of Alabama where she served on the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team and the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society. She served more than 20 years as a practicing attorney in Birmingham. She has two adult children and a grandchild, according to her website.

May fills the bench seat vacated by former circuit judge Nakita Blocton, who was removed from office Dec. 10, 2021 by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

Blocton was brought before the Court of the Judiciary after a 37-page report accused her of mental instability and drug use, abuse of staff, attorneys and litigants and failure to promptly dispose of cases.

After a trial, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary voted to remove her from office. The court found she was not mentally unstable and had not used drugs inappropriately. But the court did rule that she had made inappropriate comments, including referring to judges as “Uncle Tom” and a “fat bitch” and called an employee a “heifer.” Among the other findings, the court ruled that Blocton had used Facebook aliases in order to communicate with litigants in a domestic relations case in order to affect the outcome of the case.