Case Title: Archer Daniels Midland Co. v. Seven Up Bottling Co.

Citation: 746 So. 2d 966

Docket Number: 1960220

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1999-06-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
746 So. 2d 966 (1999)
ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND COMPANY et al.
v.
SEVEN UP BOTTLING COMPANY OF JASPER, INC.
1960220.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 25, 1999.
Rehearing Denied October 22, 1999.
*967 Vernon L. Wells and Julia Boaz-Cooper of Walston, Wells, Anderson & Bains, L.L.P., Birmingham; L. Vastine Stabler, Jr., Birmingham, and Aubrey M. Daniel III and John Schmidtlein of Williams & Connolly, Washington, DC, "of counsel," for appellant Archer Daniels Midland Co.
Robert D. Eckinger and E. Berton Spence of Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, Birmingham, for appellant Haarmann & Reimer Corp.
James L. North of James L. North & Associates, Birmingham, for appellant Cargill, Inc.
Garve Ivey, Jr., of King & Ivey, Jasper; Philippa McC. Bainbridge and Michael Straus of Bainbridge & Straus, Birmingham; J. Michael Rediker, Thomas L. Krebs, and Steve P. Gregory of Ritchie & Rediker, Birmingham; Larry W. Morris and Randall S. Haynes of Morris, Haynes, Ingram & Hornsby, Alexander City; and Herman Watson, Jr., and Douglas C. Adair of Watson, Fees & Jimmerson, Huntsville, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
The issue presented on this appeal is whether Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-60, provides a cause of action for damage alleged to have resulted from a conspiracy to control the price of citric acid that was shipped from companies out-of-state into Alabama. The trial court ruled that § 6-5-60 provides such a cause of action; therefore, it denied the defendants' Rule 12(b)(6), Ala. R.Civ.P., motion to dismiss. We granted the defendants' request for permission to appeal that interlocutory order. Rule 5, Ala.R.App.P. We reverse and remand.
The plaintiff, Seven Up Bottling Company of Jasper, Inc. ("Seven Up"), filed this action on behalf of itself and seeking to represent a class consisting of "[a]ll persons or entities within Alabama who purchased citric acid and/or products containing citric acid indirectly from any of the Defendants or their co-conspirators at any time during the period January 1, 1991, to the present." Seven Up is an Alabama corporation engaged in the business of bottling and distributing soft drinks. Seven Up uses citric acid in its bottling operation. The defendants, Archer Daniels Midland Company; Cargill, Inc.; and Haarmann & Reimer Corporation, are in the business of selling citric acid. The complaint alleges that each of the defendants is a foreign corporation with its principal place of business outside Alabama. The complaint also alleges that the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to control the price of citric acid shipped into Alabama. The complaint further alleges that the plaintiff and others were injured as a result of that conspiracy by paying more for citric acid and for products containing citric acid than they would have paid if the price of citric acid had been set by free competition. In its order denying the defendants' motion to *968 dismiss, the trial court stated that "[t]he dispositive legal issue, as advanced by the Defendants, is whether [Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-60], has application to such a conspiracy which, if conducted at all, is admittedly conducted in interstate commerce rather than in intrastate commerce."
Citing, among other cases, Georgia Fruit Exchange v. Turnipseed, 9 Ala.App. 123, 62 So. 542 (1913); Dothan Oil Mill Co. v. Espy, 220 Ala. 605, 127 So. 178 (1930); Ex parte Rice, 259 Ala. 570, 67 So. 2d 825 (1953); San Ann Tobacco Co. v. Hamm, 283 Ala. 397, 217 So. 2d 803 (1968); In re Brand Name Prescription Drugs Antitrust Litigation, 123 F.3d 599 (7th Cir.1997); In re NASDAQ Market Makers Antitrust Litigation, 929 F. Supp. 174, 179 (S.D.N.Y.1996); and Warren v. Playmobil U.S.A., Inc., [CV-95-B-1591-S, March 19, 1996] (N.D.Ala.1996), the defendants contend that Alabama's antitrust statutes have consistently been interpreted by state and federal courts to apply only to transactions involving intrastate commerce. The defendants argue that Alabama's antitrust statutes, including § 6-5-60, have the same field of operation today that they had when they were first enacted. According to the defendants, the legislative history of Alabama's antitrust statutes, as well as the state of federal caselaw at the time of their enactment, creates a presumption that the Legislature never intended to directly regulate agreements to control the price of goods shipped in interstate commerce. This presumption, the defendants argue, has not been overcome by the plaintiff.
The plaintiff contends that § 6-5-60 provides a cause of action in favor of "[a]ny person, firm, or corporation injured or damaged by an unlawful trust, combine or monopoly, or its effect, direct or indirect," and against "any person, firm, or corporation creating, operating, aiding, or abetting such trust, combine, or monopoly." According to the plaintiff, § 6-5-60 is clear on its face and should not be construed so narrowly as to limit its application to transactions involving intrastate commerce. The plaintiff maintains, in the alternative, that even if § 6-5-60 should be construed in light of the legislative history of Alabama's antitrust statutes and the state of federal caselaw at the time of their enactment, the clear intent of the Legislature in enacting § 6-5-60 was to regulate all agreements in restraint of trade, whether those agreements involved interstate commerce or intrastate commerce.
With the positions of the parties in mind, we pause to point out what this case is not about. We are not here concerned with whether the Legislature, based on the current state of federal caselaw, has the power to enact a statute, such as § 6-5-60, to provide a means of redress to Alabama companies for indirect injuries suffered as the result of agreements to control the price of goods shipped through interstate commerce. See California v. ARC America Corp., 490 U.S. 93, 109 S. Ct. 1661, 104 L. Ed. 2d 86 (1989), cited by the parties for the proposition that the Legislature now has that power.[1] This Court has held that an Alabama statute does not expand like an accordion with changes in federal law bearing on the Legislature's power. Instead, *969 we are concerned only with whether the Legislature, when it enacted § 6-5-60, contemplated that it would apply to such agreements. See In re Upshaw, 247 Ala. 221, 23 So. 2d 861 (1945).
In determining whether § 6-5-60 provides a cause of action for damage resulting from an agreement to control the price of goods shipped through interstate commerce, we must follow the cardinal rule of statutory construction and ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature in enacting the statute. If possible, legislative intent should be gathered from the language of the statute itself. John Deere Co. v. Gamble, 523 So. 2d 95 (Ala.1988).
However, when circumstances surrounding the enactment of a statute cast doubt on the otherwise clear language of the statute, we must look to other factors in determining legislative intent. In Siegelman v. Chase Manhattan Bank (USA), N.A., 575 So. 2d 1041 (Ala.1991), this Court was faced with the question whether the financial-institution excise tax, levied pursuant to Ala.Code 1975, § 40-16-1 et seq., applied to the credit-card business conducted by national banks located outside Alabama with Alabama residents. When that excise-tax statute was enacted in 1935, such taxation by the states was prohibited by federal statutes and caselaw. Federal law changed in 1976 so as to allow the taxation of national banks; the state argued that that change should render out-of-state national banks subject to the 1935 excise-tax statute. This Court rejected that argument, stating, at 575 So.2d at 1048-51:
*972 "In the present case, we recognize that under existing federal law and judicial enlargement states are able to tax out-of-state national banks if their taxing measures are nondiscriminatory. See 12 U.S.C. § 548 (1988). However, when the Excise Tax Statute was enacted in 1935, federal law prevented taxation of out-of-state national banks. In addition to the changes implemented by Congress in 1976, the United States Supreme Court changed its position so as to allow taxation of interstate commerce. See Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, supra.
"Under prevailing Alabama statutory construction law, we presume that the legislature was aware of the federal law in 1935 and of the subsequent changes in that law in 1976, as well as the changes in the United States Supreme Court's analysis of the taxation of interstate commerce. Ex parte Louisville & Nashville R.R., supra, and Ex parte Dixie Tool & Die Co., supra. Although the Alabama legislature presumably was aware of Congress's enlargement of state taxing power over national banks, and of the United States Supreme Court's enlargement in regard to taxation of interstate commerce, it made no changes to the Excise Tax Statute.
"This Court's role is not to displace the legislature by amending statutes to make them express what we think the legislature should have done. Nor is it this Court's role to assume the legislative prerogative to correct defective legislation or amend statutes. Consequently, we conclude that the Excise Tax Statute applies today in the same manner that it did when it was first enacted. Because states were prohibited from taxing out-of-state national banks at the time the statute levying the excise tax was first enacted and judicial interpretation disallowed taxation of interstate commerce, the State may not tax Chase, an out-of-state national bank, in the absence of additional action by the Alabama legislature."
This Court, in Ellis v. Pope, 709 So. 2d 1161 (Ala.1997), reaffirmed Siegelman, Ex parte Dixie Tool & Die, and Ex parte Louisville & N.R.R., insofar as those cases require that we look to the original intent of the Legislature when interpreting a statute. In Pope, this Court adopted, as part of its opinion, a portion of the trial court's order, including this statement:
709 So. 2d  at 1165.
Section 6-5-60 provides:
As the plaintiff correctly points out, § 6-5-60 is not, on its face, limited to transactions involving intrastate commerce. We hasten to add, however, that there is no language in § 6-5-60 that conclusively indicates an intent on the Legislature's part to regulate transactions involving the shipment of goods through interstate commerce. Because the language of § 6-5-60, standing alone, is not conclusive on the question of legislative intent, and because other factors, including the legislative history of Alabama's antitrust statutes, as well as the state of the law at the time of their enactment, cast doubt on the original intent of the Legislature, we find it necessary to look beyond the language of the statute.
54 Am.Jur.2d Monopolies, Restraints of Trade, and Unfair Trade Practices § 1 (1996).
Following the lead of other states, the Alabama Legislature enacted this state's first general antitrust law on February 7, 1891.[2] Ala. Acts 1890-91, Act No. 202, p. *974 438, entitled "An Act [t]o prohibit pools, trusts, or combines to regulate or control the prices of products, goods, wares or merchandise in this state," was patterned after a similar statute that had been enacted in Illinois and was akin to the Sherman Antitrust Act, which Congress had enacted shortly before on July 2, 1890. Act No. 202, which was criminal in nature, provided:
(Emphasis added.) Act No. 202 was codified in the Alabama Code of 1896 as Chapter 196, Article 5, § 5557, § 5558, and § 5559:
What clearly stands out with respect to the 1896 codification of Act No. 202 is the change in phraseology in § 5557, specifically, the deletion of the words "within this state," which had appeared as the 20th, 21st, and 22d words of Act No. 202. This change was made by William L. Martin, Alabama's Code commissioner. Pursuant to Ala. Acts 1894-95, Act No. 507, § 1, p. 1001, Martin was given the authority to "revise, digest and codify all of the statutes of this state of a general and public nature, both civil and criminal." Act No. 507 specifically provided as follows:
In his report to the Governor, on page 111, Martin stated as follows:
We note that Act No. 202, dealing with the prohibition of "pools, trusts, etc.," was codified as Article 5, § 5557, § 5558, and § 5559 of Chapter 196 of the 1896 Code, not as § 5549, § 5550, and § 5551, of Chapter 195. Notwithstanding these apparent errors, Martin did specifically state that he had rewritten "the act of February 7, 1891page 438" (Act No. 202) so as to make "such changes as were necessary in phraseology." Neither the Governor nor the Legislature made any changes to § 5557, § 5558, or § 5559 before the Legislature adopted the 1896 Code.
Article IV, § 103, of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 provided:
This constitutional mandate, Rogers v. City of Mobile, 277 Ala. 261, 169 So. 2d 282 (1964), resulted in the Legislature's readopting § 5557, § 5558, and § 5559 of the 1896 Code in substantially the same form in the 1907 Code as § 7579, § 7580, and § 7582:
The Legislature also added the following provision, which appeared as § 7581 of Chapter 273 of the 1907 Code:
In addition to these criminal antitrust provisions, in the 1907 Code the Legislature, for the first time, provided for a civil cause of action for injuries resulting from the effects of a trust, combine, or monopoly:
Section 7579, § 7580, § 7581, and § 7582 of the 1907 Code were carried forward in substantially the same form into the 1923 Code as § 5212, § 5213, § 5214, and § 5215, respectively:
Section 2487 and § 2488 of the 1907 Code (providing for a civil cause of action) were carried forward in substantially the same form into the 1923 Code as § 5697 and § 5698:
Section 5212, § 5213, and § 5214 of the 1923 Code were carried forward in substantially the same form into the 1940 Code as Title 57, § 106, § 107, and § 108, respectively:
Section 5697 and § 5698 of the 1923 Code (providing for a civil cause of action) were carried forward in substantially the same form into the 1940 Code as Title 7, § 124 and § 125:
Section 106, § 107, and § 108 of Title 57 of the 1940 Code were carried forward in substantially the same form into the 1975 Code as § 8-10-1, § 8-10-2, and § 8-10-3, respectively:
Section 124 and § 125 of Title 7 of the 1940 Code (providing for a civil cause of action) were carried forward in substantially the same form into the 1975 Code as subsections (a) and (b), respectively, of § 6-5-60.
With this legislative history in mind, we move next to the state of federal constitutional law at the time Alabama's antitrust statutes were originally enacted. In 1 ABA Antitrust Law Section, State Antitrust Practice and Statutes Introduction-20 (1990), we find the following:
(Emphasis in original.) See, also, Lawrence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law, § 5-4, at 307-08 (2d ed.1988) (discussing the United States Supreme Court's varying approaches to interpreting the Commerce Clause, Article I, § 8, of the United States Constitution, but specifically noting the consistent dichotomy maintained by that Court between interstate commerce and intrastate commerce prior to the New Deal). This dichotomy between interstate commerce and intrastate commerce is clearly illustrated in a series of cases decided by the Court between 1888 and 1899. See Bowman v. Chicago & N.W. Ry., 125 U.S. 465, 493, 8 S. Ct. 689, 31 L. Ed. 700 (1888) ("[A] State has legislative control, exclusive of Congress, within its territory, of all persons, things, and transactions of strictly internal concern.... It cannot, without the consent of Congress, expressed or implied, regulate commerce between its people and those of the other States of the Union in order to effect its end, however desirable such a regulation might be."); Brennan v. Titusville, 153 U.S. 289, 302, 14 S. Ct. 829, 38 L. Ed. 719 (1894) ("we think it must be considered, in view of a long line of decisions, *981 that it is settled that nothing which is a direct burden upon interstate commerce can be imposed by the State without the assent of Congress"); United States v. E.C. Knight Co., 156 U.S. 1, 12, 15 S. Ct. 249, 39 L. Ed. 325 (1895) ("That which belongs to commerce [between the States] is within the jurisdiction of the United States, but that which does not belong to commerce is within the jurisdiction of the police power of the State."[3]); Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States, 175 U.S. 211, 233, 20 S. Ct. 96, 44 L. Ed. 136 (1899) (also involving an alleged violation of the *982 Sherman Antitrust Act) ("[e]ach state ... would have complete jurisdiction over the commerce which was wholly within its own borders, while the jurisdiction of Congress, under the provisions of the Constitution, over interstate commerce would be paramount, and would include therein jurisdiction over contracts [in restraint of such commerce]"); see, also, W.W. Thomas, A Treatise On Combinations In Restraint of Trade, § 90-91, at 229, 232 (2d ed. 1928) ("Congress has no control over intrastate commerce.... No state may in any way enact legislation which in any wise controls, regulates, or infringes on interstate commerce.").[4]
One of the best discussions of the prevailing dual-sovereignty theory of state-federal regulatory authority at the turn of the century is found in Justice Stewart's dissenting opinion in Cantor v. Detroit Edison Co., 428 U.S. 579, 632-36, 96 S. Ct. 3110, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1141 (1976). In Cantor, the Supreme Court was called upon to decide whether Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341, 63 S. Ct. 307, 87 L. Ed. 315 (1943), which had held that the Sherman Antitrust Act was not violated by state action displacing competition in the marketing of raisins, immunized private action that had been approved by a state regulatory agency and that had to continue while the state approval remained effective. Justice Stewart's historical analysis of the legislative history of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which was not in dispute, reads as follows:
428 U.S.  at 632-36, 96 S. Ct. 3110 (Stewart, J., dissenting) (emphasis in Justice Stewart's opinion).
An Alabama appellate court first dealt with the scope of this state's antitrust statutes in 1913. In Georgia Fruit Exchange v. Turnipseed, supra, the defendant in a breach-of-contract action defended on the ground that the contract was illegal and void as in restraint of trade and against public policy. The Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's order sustaining the defendant's demurrer to the complaint, stating:
"There being thus both a state and national law prohibiting unlawful combinations in restraint of tradethe one law relating to intrastate, the other to interstate, commerceit is immaterial as to which character of commerce, whether only one or both, is involved in the contract here under consideration; for if the contract is in violation of either law it is void as contravening a positive statute; and, even if it does not go to the extent of being in actual violation of either statute, yet if it tends to create a monopoly by unreasonably restraining trade, it is still void under our law, as at common law, as being against public policy. Arnold v. Jones, 152 Ala. 501, 44 South. 662, 12 L.R.A. (N.S.) 150; 2 May. Dig. 784; 5 May. Dig. 218; 6 May. Dig. 182, where the authorities are cited."
9 Ala.App. at 131-33, 62 So.  at 545-46. (Emphasis added.)
This Court first considered the application of Alabama's antitrust statutes in Dothan Oil Mill Co. v. Espy, supra. The defendants in that case were Alabama manufacturers of cotton-seed oil "in different localities in this state" and were "the only buyers in Alabama of any appreciable amount of cotton-seed offered for sale in the State." 220 Ala. at 606-07, 127 So.  at 179-80. The plaintiffs, Alabama cotton ginners, alleged that the defendants had "agreed among themselves the price to be paid for cotton-seed throughout the State of Alabama." 220 Ala. at 606, 127 So.  at 179. The defendants argued that the trial court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, on the ground that the challenged conspiracy to control the price of cottonseed involved interstate commerce. The defendants based their argument on the fact that a portion of the products that were manufactured from cottonseed were sold outside Alabama. This Court rejected the defendants' argument, stating:
This Court next commented on Alabama's antitrust statutes in Ex parte Rice, supra. That case involved an original petition for a writ of mandamus to require the trial court to vacate its order overruling the plaintiffs' motion to compel answers to interrogatories. The underlying action was filed by the Sinclair Refining Company and sought the specific performance of a contract. The defendant raised as a defense that the contract was illegal, arguing that its "purpose was to engage in a monopoly in violation of the state and federal law." 259 Ala. at 572, 67 So. 2d  at 826. This Court denied mandamus relief, holding that the motion to compel had been properly denied because the interrogatories filed by the defendant sought to place an improper burden on the plaintiff. In the course of its discussion of the applicable law, this Court noted:
259 Ala. at 575, 67 So. 2d  at 829. (Emphasis added.)
In San Ann Tobacco Co. v. Hamm, supra, this Court addressed the constitutionality of an amendment to the Alabama Unfair Cigarette Sales Act, Ala. Acts 1951, Act No. 805, as amended in 1965 by Ala. Acts 1965, Act No. 78, p. 105, Second Special Session. In striking down the amendment as violating § 1 and § 35 of the Alabama Constitution, this Court wrote:
283 Ala. at 400, 217 So. 2d  at 804-05. (Some emphasis original; other emphasis added.)
At least three federal courts have followed the aforementioned line of Alabama decisions and have declined to interpret Alabama's antitrust statutes as reaching transactions involving interstate commerce. See In re Brand Name Prescription Drugs Antitrust Litigation, supra (district court denying motion to remand to state court, stating that "[i]t is clear that the statute [§ 6-5-60] applies only to intrastate activity");[5]In re NASDAQ *988 Market Makers Antitrust Litigation, supra, at 179 (denying motion to remand and noting that "the Alabama state courts have deemed the Alabama antitrust statutes upon which the complaint is based to regulate only intrastate commerce"); and Warren v. Playmobil U.S.A., Inc., supra (denying motion to remand, concluding that "the Alabama statutes the plaintiff purports to rely upon [§ 6-5-60, § 8-10-1, and § 8-10-3] regulate only intrastate commerce").
After carefully reviewing the record and the briefs (which, we note, were exceptionally well written), we conclude that the rationale of Siegelman (that because the states were prohibited by federal law from taxing out-of-state national banks at the time the statute levying the excise tax was first enacted, the state could not tax an out-of-state national bank under the existing tax statute in the absence of further action by the Legislature) is equally applicable in the present case. Although what is now § 6-5-60 (providing for a civil cause of action) was enacted a little over 16 years after what are now § 8-10-1, § 8-10-2, and § 8-10-3 (prescribing criminal penalties), all of these statutes are part of a uniform system of regulation, in the sense that they are all directed toward punishing or providing redress for activities in restraint of trade. Related statutes of this kind should, when possible, be construed in pari materia. Jordan v. Reliable Life Insurance Co., 589 So. 2d 699 (Ala.1991), citing N. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction, § 70.05, at 505 (4th ed.1986). It is significant, we think, that all of these antitrust provisions were first enacted at a time in this country's history when the United States Supreme Court maintained a clear dichotomy with respect to a state's power to regulate commerce. Our research indicates that at the time of the enactment of what are now § 8-10-1, § 8-10-2, and § 8-10-3 (1891), and extending through the time of the enactment in 1907 of what is now § 6-5-60, the United States Supreme Court had clearly held that the regulation of interstate commerce was within the exclusive domain of Congress. It is also significant that a federal antitrust law (the Sherman Antitrust Act) was already in effect at the time of the enactment of what are now § 8-10-1, § 8-10-2, and § 8-10-3. Thus, under the rationale of Siegelman, we must entertain a strong presumption that the Alabama Legislature was aware toward the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, when it first enacted these antitrust statutes, that its ability to regulate antitrust activity was limited in that it did not have the power to directly regulate transactions involving interstate commerce. The United States Supreme Court had clearly signaled, however, that the regulation of intrastate commerce at the turn of the century was still largely within the exclusive domain of the states.
This presumption that the Legislature intended to limit the scope of its antitrust laws to transactions involving intrastate commerce is strengthened by several additional factors. First, the Illinois statute that formed the basis for what are now § 8-10-1, § 8-10-2, and § 8-10-3, was held early on by the Illinois Supreme Court to be limited to transactions involving intrastate commerce. See People ex rel. Akin v. Butler Street Foundry & Iron Co., 201 Ill. 236, 66 N.E. 349 (1903). Second, Act No. 202, § 1 (the predecessor of § 8-10-1), as originally enacted by the Legislature in 1891, read as follows:
(Emphasis added.) Although this fact is certainly not conclusive, this section, as originally worded, suggests that the Legislature intended to limit the scope of Alabama's antitrust regulations to transactions involving intrastate commerce. Although the Code commissioner deleted the words "within this state" from § 5557 during his compilation of the 1896 Code, we find in our research no indication that he had the authority or the intent to make any substantive changes to Act No. 202, or that the Legislature, by adopting the 1896 Code with the commissioner's suggested change to § 5557, contemplated that the deletion of the words would effect the kind of substantive change that the plaintiff suggests was intendedto expand the scope of the statute to encompass transactions involving interstate commerce. We find it more probable (although we certainly can never know for sure) that the commissioner deleted the words, and that the Legislature accepted that change, out of an understanding or belief that the state lacked extraterritorial authority over commerce and, therefore, that the words were not necessary. Third, and perhaps most important, the Court of Appeals stated in 1913, shortly after these statutes were enacted, that the Legislature's regulatory power over antitrust violations did not extend to transactions involving interstate commerce, specifically recognizing that the regulation of such transactions had been undertaken by Congress pursuant to the Sherman Antitrust Act. The understanding of the Court of Appeals in this respect has been echoed by this Court on every occasion on which it has considered the matter. Fourth, the Legislature, with presumptive knowledge of the interpretation placed on Alabama's antitrust laws by Alabama appellate courts, has made no substantive changes to any of Alabama's antitrust laws since their original enactment.
As previously noted, when circumstances surrounding the enactment of laws, such as the antitrust statutes at issue here, cast doubt on the otherwise clear language of the statutes themselves, we must look to other factors in determining legislative intent. Siegelman, supra. In an effort to avoid indulging in conjecture or searching for imaginary purposes with respect to these antitrust statutes, we have followed the well-settled rule of statutory construction "that it is permissible in ascertaining [the purpose and intent of a statute] to look to the history of the times, the existing order of things, the state of the law when the instrument was adopted, and the conditions necessitating such adoption." In re Upshaw, 247 Ala. at 223, 23 So. 2d  at 863. Having done that, we hold, based on the above, that § 6-5-60 does not provide a cause of action for damages allegedly resulting from an agreement to control the price of goods shipped in interstate commerce. We reiterate what we stated in Siegelman, supra:
575 So. 2d  at 1051. We hold only that the field of operation of Alabama's antitrust statutes, specifically § 6-5-60, is no greater today than it was when the laws were first enacted. Thus, these statutes regulate monopolistic activities that occur *990 "within this state"within the geographic boundaries of this stateeven if such activities fall within the scope of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States.[6] We leave to the Legislature the policy decision of whether to expand the reach of Alabama's antitrust statutes to activities that cross state boundaries.
The trial court's order denying the defendants' motion to dismiss is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX, HOUSTON, SEE, and BROWN, JJ., concur.
COOK and JOHNSTONE, JJ., dissent.
LYONS, J., recuses himself.
SEE, J., files statement of nonrecusal.
COOK, Justice (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent, for the reasons expressed in my dissent in Abbott Laboratories v. Durrett, 746 So. 2d 316, 340 (Ala. 1999).
JOHNSTONE, Justice (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent, for the reasons stated in my dissent in Abbott Laboratories v. Durrett, 746 So. 2d 316, 347 (Ala. 1999).
SEE, Justice (statement of nonrecusal).
The plaintiff, Seven Up Bottling Company of Jasper, Inc. ("Seven Up"), through its attorney, has moved for my recusal in this case. Because, when I first considered the motion, I thought further information would be useful in resolving the recusal issue, the clerk of this Court sent my response to the recusal motion to counsel for all parties involved in this case. That response requested that the law firm of Walston, Wells, Anderson & Bains ("Walston Wells") provide me with the following information by way of affidavit:
After making an in camera examination of the affidavits provided by Walston Wells, I have determined that Mr. Childs has no interest in Walston Wells that will be substantially affected by the outcome of this case.[7] Because Mr. Childs's interest will *991 not be substantially affected, and because there are no other grounds asserted for questioning my impartiality, it is my constitutional duty to decide this case. I, therefore, decline to recuse myself.
Seven Up has moved for my recusal based on the fact that Larry Childs is my brother-in-law and is a partner in the law firm of Walston Wells, and the fact that Walston Wells is lead counsel for one of the defendants, Archer Daniels Midland Company ("ADM"). Mr. Childs did not appear as counsel. Nonetheless, because he is a partner in Walston Wells, it is possible to conceive of circumstances under which he might benefit to some degree from his firm's representation of one of the defendants. Therefore, I will address the concerns raised by Seven Up in its motion for my recusal.
Seven Up argues that I am required to recuse on the basis that Mr. Childs's association with Walston Wells mandates my per se disqualification under the Canons of Judicial Ethics.[8] The defendants respond with the argument that I am not required to recuse, because Mr. Childs has no association with the case other than the fact that he is a partner in a law firm involved in the case. They argue that under Alabama law that circumstance alone does not require recusal.
"The law of recusal reflects two fundamental judicial policies: First, it is the *992 duty of a judge to decide cases.[[9]] Second, a judge should be a neutral, or impartial, decision-maker."[10]Dunlop Tire Corp. v. Allen, 725 So. 2d 960, 976 (Ala. 1998) (See, J., statement of nonrecusal). The policies underpinning a judge's duty to vote on cases before him and a judge's duty to uphold the actual and apparent impartiality of the judiciary are embodied in Alabama's Canons of Judicial Ethics. Canon 3, Ala. Can. Jud. Eth. With respect to recusal, Canon 3C provides in pertinent part:
There is no allegation that I have a personal bias for or against Seven Up. Mr. Childs is not a party to this proceeding; he is not an officer, a director, or a trustee of any party; and there is no indication that Mr. Childs is likely to be a material witness in the proceeding. Moreover, Mr. Childs does not himself represent any party in this case.[12]
Although the courts of Alabama have not addressed whether a judge must recuse himself because his relative is affiliated with a law firm that represents a party before him, the Commentary to Canon 3C(1)(d) states:
The Judicial Inquiry Commission has stated:
Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 88-338 (September 30, 1988).
Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 97-653 (June 27, 1997).
The JIC has suggested a process for a judge to consider when he presides over a case in which a lawyer representing a party is affiliated with a law firm with which a lawyer relative of the judge is also affiliated:
Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 93-500 (August 31, 1993).
Richard Flamm has discussed that provision of the ABA Model Canons of Judicial Ethics that is substantially similar to Canon 3C(1)(d), Ala. Can. Jud. Eth. He explains:
*995 Richard E. Flamm, Judicial Disqualification: Recusal and Disqualification of Judges, §§ 8.5.3 and 8.5.4 (1996). Thus, Alabama's rejection of a per se recusal rule based on a lawyer relative's affiliation with a law firm is consistent with the general rule.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reasons that "[i]t would simply be unrealistic to assume ... that partners in today's law firms invariably `have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of' any case in which any other partner is involved." Pashaian v. Eccelston Properties, Ltd., 88 F.3d 77, 83-84 (2d Cir.1996) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 455(b)(5)(iii)).[14] In determining that recusal was not required in the case before it, the Second Circuit relied heavily on the fact that the trial judge, whose recusal was being sought, had considered, from information provided under seal, the gross revenue of his relative's law firm; the extent to which his relative, as a partner in the law firm, participated in the net income of the law firm; and whether his relative's interest in the firm would be "substantially affected" by the outcome of the specific case before the judge.[15] The Second Circuit determined that the trial judge's conclusion that his relative's interest would not be substantially affected "should not be ignored in favor of an unrealistic generalization that in our view is not supported, much less compelled, by the text of § 455(b)(5)(iii)." Id. at 84. Accord "Statement of Recusal Policy [of Seven Justices]," Supreme Court of the United States, November 1, 1993 ("We do not think it would serve the public interest to go beyond the requirements of the statute, and to recuse ourselves, out of an excess of caution, whenever a relative is a partner in the firm before us or acted as a lawyer at an earlier stage. Even one unnecessary recusal impairs the functioning of the Court. Given the size and number of today's national law firms, and the frequent appearance before us of many of them in a single case, recusal might become a common occurrence, and opportunities would be multiplied for `strategizing' recusals, that is, selecting law firms with an eye to producing the recusal of particular Justices."). Although it may be that some jurisdictions may automatically disqualify a judge from cases involving his brother-in-law's law firm,[16] it is the Second Circuit's *996 rationale that is consistent with the current state of Alabama law.[17]
In my review of this Court's cases, I have noted, for example, that two former Justices recused themselves from cases involving the law firm where their children were partners, but that when this Court, on July 31, 1998, initially issued an opinion in Abbott Laboratories v. Durrett (No. 1960464) (withdrawn this date on rehearing ex mero motu, and opinion substituted; see 746 So.2d 316), another Justice did not recuse under similar circumstances. The former situations involved a law firm with four partners and two lawyers of counsel. Thus, absent special provisions in the partnership agreement, any case could have a direct and substantial pecuniary impact on every partner. On the other hand, the law firm involved in the latter situation had *997 over 300 lawyers, with almost 100 partners in the office where the child practices.[18] The likelihood that a single case would have a substantial effect on the interest of a partner in such a firm is slight. Walston Wells is a law firm with 21 partners, 1 lawyer of counsel, and 10 associates. Although one could imagine situations where the interest of a partner of Walston Wells could be substantially affected by the outcome of a case, the information contained in the affidavits provided by Walston Wells establishes that no interest Mr. Childs has in Walston Wells will be substantially affected by the outcome of this case.
"[T]he Canon 3C(1) recusal test is: `Would a person of ordinary prudence in the judge's position knowing all the facts known to the judge find that there is a reasonable basis for questioning the judge's impartiality?'" Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 93-500 (August 31, 1993) (quoting In re Sheffield, 465 So. 2d 350, 356 (Ala.1984)). After examining the particular facts of this case, I am aware of no factors, other than the relationship, that might reasonably cause my impartiality to be questioned.[19]
Normally, a judge need not initiate an investigation into whether his lawyer relative has an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of a case before him. See Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 93-500 (August 31, 1993) ("A judge need not initiate investigation to determine whether or not his relative has an interest in the law firm that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceedings unless the judge has reason to believe that such an interest exists."). However, because Seven Up has questioned whether the Canons of Judicial Ethics prohibit me from voting in this case, and because Mr. Childs is a partner in Walston Wells, I have investigated his interest in the firm, and whether the case before this Court will substantially affect that interest. After making an in camera examination of the affidavits provided by Walston Wells, I have determined that Mr. Childs has no interest in Walston Wells that will be substantially affected by the outcome of this case. Because no interest of Mr. Childs will be substantially affected, and because there are no other grounds asserted for questioning my impartiality, it is my constitutional duty to decide this case. I, therefore, decline to recuse myself.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX, HOUSTON, KENNEDY,[20] COOK, BROWN, and JOHNSTONE, JJ., concur.
[1]  We note that in 54A Am.Jur.2d Monopolies, Restraints of Trade, and Unfair Trade Practices § 798 (1996), the following statement appears:

"A state antitrust act can have no extra-territorial operation; consequently, the courts in construing a state antitrust statute will generally apply it to trusts and combinations formed or operated within the state, even though its terms are broad enough to include combinations formed with parties residing outside the state."
But see the recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in In re: Brand Name Prescription Drugs Antitrust Litigation, 123 F.3d 599 (7th Cir. 1997), citing R.E. Spriggs Co. v. Adolph Coors Co., 37 Cal. App. 3d 653, 112 Cal. Rptr. 585 (1974), and Heath Consultants, Inc. v. Precision Instruments, Inc., 247 Neb. 267, 527 N.W.2d 596 (1995).
[2]  The Legislature had enacted a law, approved on February 23, 1883, regulating the "pooling of freights":

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Alabama, That it shall be unlawful for two or more railroad companies or persons operating railroads in this State to enter into any agreement among themselves, directly or indirectly, for the division among themselves of the freight carrying business at any station, town or city in this State, or into any pool arrangement among themselves of the nature and character aforesaid, the object, purpose and effect of which in either event shall be to prevent free and fair competition among said railroad companies or persons operating said railroads, for said freight carrying business, and to establish extortionate rates in favor of said companies or persons in doing said business, and which shall have the effect of being in undue restraint of the trade and business at any such station, town or city of this State.
"Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That any officer, agent or servant of any such company, or person operating any railroad in this State who shall violate any of the provisions of this act, or who shall aid or assist in making or carrying out or performing any such agreement or pool arrangement shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction for every such offense shall be fined not less than fifty dollars, nor more than two hundred dollars, at the discretion of the court trying the same.
"Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That it is the true intent and meaning of this act, that any such agreement, rates or pool agreement made by any convention or association of freight agents, or commissioner of freight rates or rate making committee outside of this State, but to be performed in whole or in part in this State, shall as to such part of the same, as is to be performed within this State, come within the provisions of this act.
"Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That any agreement, rates, or pool arrangements made by two or more railroad companies, or persons operating railroads in this State, or by any convention, or by any association of freight agents or commissioner of freight rates, or rate making committee outside of this State, but to be performed in whole or in part within this State for the purpose of cheapening freight rates or of extending additional facilities to the public generally, or to any town, city or station in this State and which are not extortionate and in undue restraint of trade at any town, city, or station in this State, shall not be construed as coming within this act.
"Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That if any such agreement, rate, or pool arrangement as is mentioned in the fourth section of this act shall have the certified approval of the railroad commission of Alabama, it shall be deemed as prima facie lawful and just in any proceeding before any court or officer of this State, and no officer, agent or servant of any railroad company, or person shall be liable to prosecution, for aiding or assisting in carrying out, or performing any such agreement or pool arrangement, so approved by any railroad commission of Alabama."
(Emphasis added.) Ala. Acts 1882-83, Act No. 79, p. 152-53. Section 2 of Act No. 79 was codified in the Alabama Code of 1886 as Article IV, § 4145.
[3]  United States v. E.C. Knight Co. was the Supreme Court's first decision construing the Sherman Antitrust Act. The full text in which this quotation appears is as follows:

"It cannot be denied that the power of a State to protect the lives, health, and property of its citizens, and to preserve good order and the public morals, `the power to govern men and things within the limits of its dominion,' is a power originally and always belonging to the States, not surrendered by them to the general government, nor directly restrained by the Constitution of the United States, and essentially exclusive. The relief of the citizens of each State from the burden of monopoly and the evils resulting from the restraint of trade among such citizens was left with the States to deal with, and this court has recognized their possession of that power even to the extent of holding that an employment or business carried on by private individuals, when it becomes a matter of such public interest and importance as to create a common charge or burden upon the citizen; in other words, when it becomes a practical monopoly, to which the citizen is compelled to resort and by means of which a tribute can be exacted from the community, is subject to regulation by state legislative power. On the other hand, the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the several States is also exclusive. The Constitution does not provide that interstate commerce shall be free, but, by the grant of this exclusive power to regulate it, it was left free except as Congress might impose restraints. Therefore it has been determined that the failure of Congress to exercise this exclusive power in any case is an expression of its will that the subject shall be free from restrictions or impositions upon it by the several States, and if a law passed by a State in the exercise of its acknowledged powers comes into conflict with that will, the Congress and the State cannot occupy the position of equal opposing sovereignties, because the Constitution declares its supremacy and that of the laws passed in pursuance thereof; and that which is not supreme must yield to that which is supreme. `Commerce, undoubtedly, is traffic,' said Chief Justice Marshall, `but it is something more; it is intercourse. It describes the commercial intercourse between nations and parts of nations in all its branches, and is regulated by prescribing rules for carrying on that intercourse.' That which belongs to commerce is within the jurisdiction of the United States, but that which does not belong to commerce is within the jurisdiction of the police power of the State. Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 189, 210, 6 L. Ed. 23; Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, 448, 6 L. Ed. 678; The License Cases, 5 How. 504, 599, 12 L. Ed. 256; [County of] Mobile v. Kimball, 102 U.S. 691, 26 L. Ed. 238; Bowman v. Chicago & N.W. Railway, 125 U.S. 465[, 8 S. Ct. 689, 31 L. Ed. 700]; Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U.S. 100, 10 S. Ct. 681, 34 L. Ed. 128; In re Rahrer, 140 U.S. 545, 555, 11 S. Ct. 865, 35 L. Ed. 572."
156 U.S.  at 11-12, 15 S. Ct. 249.
In P. Areeda & D. Turner, 1 Antitrust Law, An Analysis of Antitrust Principles and their Application, § 232c (1978), we find the following discussion of Knight:
"The 1895 Knight case, the Supreme Court's first Sherman Act decision, held a national monopoly of sugar manufacturing beyond the constitutional reach of the act because mere manufacturing was not `commerce.' At that time, the Commerce Clause embraced only the actual and `direct' purchase, sale, or transportation of goods across state lines. The Court acknowledged that such commerce was affected by the sugar monopoly, but only `indirectly.'
"Two characteristics of the Knight decision remain important today. First, the Court never reached the merits of the government's case because the constitutional determination was made first, and the courts still treat the commerce question as a preliminary jurisdictional hurdle in antitrust litigation. Second, the jurisdictional inquiry was entirely independent of the Sherman Act's purposes. That separation seemed feasible in 1895 when `interstate commerce' was wholly dependent upon the location of the defendant's conduct, and without regard to its impact on the interests protected by the Sherman Act. This neat separation of jurisdictional and substantive inquiries caused difficulties with later and more expansive definitions of interstate commerce."
[4]  We note that the Supreme Court had held at the time Alabama first enacted its antitrust statutes that the Commerce Clause, in conferring on Congress the power to regulate commerce, did not wholly withdraw from the states the power to regulate matters of local concern with respect to which Congress had not exercised its power, even though the regulation in some way affected interstate commerce. See, e.g., California v. Thompson, 313 U.S. 109, 113, 61 S. Ct. 930, 85 L. Ed. 1219 (1941), in which the Court noted:

"Ever since Willson v. Black Bird Creek Marsh Co., 2 Pet. 245, 7 L. Ed. 412 [(1829)], and Cooley v. [Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia], 12 How. 299, 13 L. Ed. 996 [(1851)], it has been recognized that there are matters of local concern, the regulation of which unavoidably involves some regulation of interstate commerce, but which because of their local character and their number and diversity may never be adequately dealt with by Congress. Because of their local character, also, there is wide scope for local regulation without impairing the uniformity of control of the national commerce in matters of national concern and without materially obstructing the free flow of commerce which were the principal objects sought to be secured by the Commerce Clause. Notwithstanding the Commerce Clause, such regulation in the absence of Congressional action has, for the most part, been left to the states by the decisions of this Court, subject only to other applicable constitutional restraints."
See, also, South Carolina State Highway Department v. Barnwell Brothers, Inc., 303 U.S. 177, 58 S. Ct. 510, 82 L. Ed. 734 (1938); Hall v. Geiger-Jones Co., 242 U.S. 539, 37 S. Ct. 217, 61 L. Ed. 480 (1917); Bowman v. Chicago & N.W. Ry., supra, and the cases cited therein. There is nothing, however, in the Supreme Court's decisions in United States v. E.C. Knight Co., supra, and Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. United States, supra, that indicates that the Court would have viewed extraterritorial state antitrust provisions as falling within that constitutionally permissible category of local regulation having only an indirect or incidental effect on interstate commerce.
[5]  The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's order denying the motion to remand. In doing so, the court recognized that at the turn of the century the Alabama Legislature lacked the constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce through the use of antitrust provisions:

"The cases on which the defendants rely, for example, Georgia Fruit Exchange v. Turnipseed, 9 Ala.App. 123, 62 So. 542, 546 (1913), date from a period in which, interstate commerce being narrowly defined, see, e.g., Hadley Dean Plate Glass Co. v. Highland Glass Co., 143 Fed. 242, 244 (8th Cir.1906), and federal power to regulate such commerce being deemed exclusive, id.; United States v. E.C. Knight Co., 156 U.S. 1, 11, 15 S. Ct. 249, 253, 39 L. Ed. 325 (1895), a state statute limited to intrastate commerce would have some, albeit a strictly limited, scope and could not have a greater scope no matter how much the state wanted it to."
123 F.3d  at 612-13. The court then went on to reason that "[t]he cases thus were not interpreting the statute; they were interpreting the Constitution as placing upper and lower bounds on the reach of the statute." 123 F.3d  at 613. Stating that the United States Constitution "has since been reinterpreted," the court noted that "[o]ther states [have] read their antitrust statutes to reach what is now understood to be interstate commerce," and that "we are given no reason to suppose that Alabama would buck this trend." Id. This Court's decisions in Siegelman v. Chase Manhattan Bank, supra; Ex parte Dixie Tool & Die Co., supra; and Ex parte Louisville & N.R.R., supra, which created a presumption that the Legislature did not intend to exceed its constitutional authority in enacting this state's antitrust provisions, preclude the kind of statutory construction that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals thought we might engage in. As we have explained, this presumption was strengthened by, among other things, the extensive legislative history of the Alabama statutes that we have set out, including the critical limiting words contained in Act No. 202"within this state." The Seventh Circuit apparently ruled without the benefit of this legislative history or this Court's decisions referenced above. We also note that the Seventh Circuit expressed concern that "[i]f the statute is limited today as it once was to commerce that is not within the regulatory power of Congress under the commerce clause, it is a dead letter because there are virtually no sales, in Alabama or anywhere else in the United States, that are intrastate in that sense." 123 F.3d  at 613. However, the statutes, as we interpret them, may yet have a field of operation because they continue to reach transactions within this state, in the geographic sense, even though such transactions may affect interstate commerce as currently defined by federal law. See Cantor v. Detroit Edison Co., 428 U.S. 579, 633, 96 S. Ct. 3110, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1141 (1976) (Stewart, J., dissenting) (recognizing that when Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, state efforts to restrain monopolies were "restricted to the geographic boundaries of the several states").
[6]  Of course, Alabama's antitrust statutes may not be applied in a manner that discriminates against or unduly burdens interstate commerce. See Minnesota v. Clover Leaf Creamery Co., 449 U.S. 456, 101 S. Ct. 715, 66 L. Ed. 2d 659 (1981); Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 97 S. Ct. 2434, 53 L. Ed. 2d 383 (1977).
[7]  Because this case presents the same issues as Abbott Laboratories v. Durrett (No. 1960464), another case presently pending before this Court, I have also taken into account the effect the result of that case will have on Mr. Childs's interest in Walston Wells. I note that the plaintiffs in Durrett argue that my recusal decision should also take into account other cases not presently before this Court in which, they assert, Walston Wells is involved and which, they assert, may be affected by the outcome of this case. "[W]here a party seeks to create an artificial appearance of bias, ... recusal will generally not be required, because the duty of the judge to decide that case outweighs the appearance of partiality." Dunlop Tire Corp. v. Allen, 725 So. 2d 960, 977 (Ala.1998) (See, J., statement of nonrecusal) (discussing whether a lawyer's threat to file a separate lawsuit against the judge creates an appearance of partiality). "To hold otherwise would allow a litigant to control judicial proceedings whenever a litigant becomes dissatisfied with the course of the proceedings." Id. A party cannot be permitted to "judge-shop" by seeking out information unknown to the judge, and then disclosing that information to the judge in order thereby to create an appearance of bias that will allow the party selectively to disqualify a judge the party believes will decide a case in a particular way. I will not recuse myself based on those cases not before this Court.
[8]  Seven Up also maintains that my impartiality might reasonably be questioned by members of the public because I failed "to expressly disclose the existence of [my] relationship [to Mr. Childs] to Seven Up...." Seven Up cites an advisory opinion of the Judicial Inquiry Commission ("JIC") that states:

"In all ... cases in which a party is represented by a member of a law firm of which the judge's sister-in-law is a partner, the judge should disclose the existence of the relationship to the parties and their attorneys. The general rule is that `it is the judge's obligation to disclose all possibly disqualifying facts.'"
Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 97-653 (June 27, 1997) (quoting J. Shaman et al., Judicial Conduct and Ethics, § 5.26 (1990)).
First, I have disclosed "Larry B. Childs, Esq., of Walston, Wells, Anderson & Bains Birmingham" continuously on my recusal list, filed with the Supreme Court clerk's office, since February 5, 1997, shortly after I assumed my position on this Court. Second, Canon 3D, which the JIC was interpreting, does not require disclosure in every instance in which the law firm of a lawyer relative is before the judge. Rather, it is the purpose of Canon 3D to permit a judge who is already disqualified by the terms of Canon 3C(1)(c) or Canon 3C(1)(d) to avoid withdrawing from the proceedings, through disclosure and consent of the parties and their attorneys. Cannon 3D provides:
"A judge disqualified by the terms of Canon 3C(1)(c) or Canon 3C(1)(d) may, instead of withdrawing from the proceeding, disclose in the record the basis of his disqualification. If based on such disclosure, the parties and lawyers, independently of the judge's participation, all agree in writing that the judge's relationship is immaterial or that his financial interest is insubstantial, the judge is no longer disqualified, and may participate in the proceeding. The agreement signed by all parties and lawyers shall be incorporated in the record of the proceeding."
Accordingly, the disclosure requirement imposed by the Canons of Judicial Ethics and discussed in the JIC opinion would not be effective until and unless the circumstances of the case otherwise required my recusal.
[9]  I have written in a statement of nonrecusal:

"The Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 impose on judges the duty to decide cases. See U.S. Const. Art. III, § 1 (vesting the `judicial Power of the United States ... in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish'); id. at art. VI (`[A]ll... judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution....'); Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211, 218-19, 115 S. Ct. 1447, 131 L. Ed. 2d 328 (1995) (`Article III establishes a "judicial department" with the "province and duty" ... to decide "case[s]."') (quoting Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177, 2 L. Ed. 60 (1803) (emphasis added)); Marbury, 5 U.S.  at 180 (stating that a judge's oath to support the Constitution requires that he exercise the judicial power and decide cases in a manner consistent with fundamental law); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554, 87 S. Ct. 1213, 18 L. Ed. 2d 288 (1967) (`It is a judge's duty to decide all cases within his jurisdiction....'); Ala. Const.1901 amend. 328, § 6.01(a) (`[T]he judicial power of the state shall be vested exclusively in a unified judicial system which shall consist of a supreme court....'); id. at § 279 (requiring `all officers, executive and judicial, ... [to] take the following oath or affirmation: "I, _________, solemnly swear ... that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Alabama ... and that I will faithfully and honestly discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter"`); Federated Guaranty Life Ins. Co. v. Bragg, 393 So. 2d 1386, 1389 (Ala.1981) (`"[I]t is the duty of the judge to adjudicate the decisive issues involved in the controversy ... and to make binding declarations concerning such issues, thus putting the controversy to rest...."`) (citation omitted)."
Dunlop Tire Corp. v. Allen, 725 So. 2d 960, 976 (Ala.1998) (See, J., statement of nonrecusal).
[10]  I also wrote the following in my statement of nonrecusal in Dunlop:

"The Due Process Clauses of the Constitution of the United States and of the Alabama Constitution require that a judge be a neutral decision-maker. U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1 (`No State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....'); Concrete Pipe & Products of California, Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California, 508 U.S. 602, 617, 113 S. Ct. 2264, 124 L. Ed. 2d 539 (1993) (`[D]ue process requires a "neutral and detached judge...."`); Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Lavoie, 475 U.S. 813, 106 S. Ct. 1580, 89 L. Ed. 2d 823 (1986) (examining due process ramifications of a state Justice's financial interest in the outcome of a case on which he had ruled); Stallworth v. City of Evergreen, 680 So. 2d 229, 233-34 (Ala.) (`An unbiased and impartial decision-maker is one of the most, if not the most, fundamental ... requirements of fairness and due process.'), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1007, 117 S. Ct. 509, 136 L. Ed. 2d 399 (1996); Ala. Const.1901, § 6 (`[I]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused... shall not be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law....'); id. at § 13 (`[E]very person, for any injury done him, in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have a remedy by due process of law....'); Ex parte Wilkey, 233 Ala. 375, 377, 172 So. 111, 113 (1937) (recognizing that §§ 6 and 13 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 require courts to be `impartial tribunals').
"Thus, the recusal law embodied in statutes, court decisions, and codes of ethics reflects both the duty to decide cases and the requirement of impartiality. See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. § 455 (requiring federal judges to recuse themselves from any proceeding in which their `impartiality might reasonably be questioned'); Ala.Code 1975, § 12-1-12 (prescribing general grounds for disqualification of Alabama judges from the trial of cases)."
Dunlop Tire Corp., 725 So. 2d  at 976 (See, J., statement of nonrecusal).
[11]  Ala.Code 1975, § 12-1-12, states:

"No judge of any court shall sit in any case or proceeding in which he is interested or related to any party within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity or in which he has been of counsel or in which is called in question the validity of any judgment or judicial proceeding in which he was of counsel or the validity or construction of any instrument or paper prepared or signed by him as counsel or attorney, without the consent of the parties entered of record or put in writing if the court is not of record."
[12]  Of course, if Mr. Childs did represent a party before this Court, my recusal would be required. Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 97-653 (June 27, 1997) ("A judge is disqualified under Canon 3C(1)(d) in any proceeding in which an attorney is related to the judge within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity."). The Judicial Inquiry Commission has based that disqualification on Canon 3C(1)(d)(i):

"Canon 3C(1)(d)(i) provides that a judge is disqualified when, inter alia, a person within the fourth degree of relationship to the judge or his spouse is an officer, director, or trustee of a party. This provision has always been interpreted to require disqualification of a judge where a party's attorney is related to either the judge or the judge's spouse within the fourth degree, either by consanguinity or affinity."
Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 97-637 (March 14, 1997). The JIC has also relied on Canon 3C(1)(d)(ii), which requires a judge to disqualify himself if "[h]e or his spouse, or a person within the fourth degree of relationship to either of them, ... [i]s known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding...." See Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 89-356 (April 4, 1989).
[13]  Flamm continues, pointing out that there is authority to the contrary:

"[A] number of courts and commentators have concluded that when the judge's relative is a partner in a firm appearing in a matter presently pending before him, judicial disqualification is mandated, but disqualification of the judge is not necessarily mandated when the judge's relative is merely an associate."
Richard E. Flamm, Judicial Disqualification: Recusal and Disqualification of Judges, § 8.5.5 (1996). He also notes:
"While judicial disqualification is sometimes sought on the ground that a party to a proceeding is a client of a judge-relative's firm, it is ordinarily insufficient to establish merely that the party is just any client; rather, it may be necessary to show that the client is a `material' client. The loss of a nonmaterial clientby definitionwould not `substantially affect' most law firms and, hence, would not substantially affect the interest of the judge's attorney-relative."
Id. at § 8.5.6.
[14]  The statute quoted, 28 U.S.C. § 455(b)(5) (1976), requires that any justice, judge, magistrate, or referee "shall ... disqualify himself... [where] [h]e or his spouse, or a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person:

"(i) Is a party to the proceeding, or an officer, director, or trustee of a party;
"(ii) Is acting as a lawyer in the proceeding;
"(iii) Is known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding;
"(iv) Is to the judge's knowledge likely to be a material witness in the proceeding."
[15]  The Second Circuit also noted that the judge

"[took] judicial notice of those matters that add to the reputation of major law firms in the City of New York and conclude[d] that insofar as the reputation of [the relative's law firm] is concerned, this matter is not of that significance to either add [to] or detract from its reputation in the City of New York...."
Pashaian, 88 F.3d  at 84.
[16]  The United States Court of Appeals for the old Fifth Circuit required recusal when a judge's relative was a partner in a law firm involved in a case pending before the judge. That court stated:

"We hold that when a partner in a law firm is related to a judge within the third degree, that partner will always be `known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome' of a proceeding involving the partner's law firm."
Potashnick v. Port City Constr. Co., 609 F.2d 1101, 1113 (5th Cir.1980) (basing its decision on 28 U.S.C. § 455(b)(5)(iii), which is identical to Canon 3C(1)(d)(ii), Ala. Can. Jud. Eth.).
On the other hand, the present Fifth Circuit has refused to apply this rationale to a claim that, because the judge's husband was a partner in a law firm that had represented a party on numerous occasions, the judge's impartiality was called into question. In re Billedeaux, 972 F.2d 104, 105-06 (5th Cir.1992) (finding the interest to be "too remote and speculative to support or suggest recusal"). In Billedeaux, the relative's law firm was not involved in the case then before the judge. The argument for recusal was that the law firm represented one of the parties before the judge on an ongoing basis and was receiving fees from those representations at the time the case was before the judge. Id.
The Second Circuit specifically rejected the rule of automatic recusal as set forth in Potashnick. Pashaian v. Eccelston Properties, Ltd., 88 F.3d 77 (2d Cir.1996).
[17]  Finally, I note that although the United States Supreme Court has not issued an opinion resolving the conflict between the rationales of the Second and Fifth Circuits, seven Justices of that Court released a "Statement of Recusal Policy" on November 1, 1993. In that statement, the seven Justices set forth personal recusal policies that they would follow in certain circumstances. The Justices stated:

"A relative's partnership status, or participation in earlier stages of the litigation, is relevant ... only under one of two less specific provisions of § 455, which require recusal when the judge knows that the relative has `an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding,' [28 U.S.C.] § 455(b)(5)(iii), or when for any reason the judge's `impartiality might reasonably be questioned,' § 455(a). We think that a relative's partnership in the firm appearing before us, or his or her previous work as a lawyer on a case that later comes before us, does not automatically trigger these provisions. If that were the intent of the law, the per se `lawyer-related recusal' requirement of § 455(b)(5)(ii) would have expressed it. Per se recusal for a relative's membership in the partnership appearing here, or for a relative's work on the case below, would render the limitation of § 455(b)(5)(ii) to personal work, and to present representation, meaningless."
"Statement of Recusal Policy," Supreme Court of the United States, November 1, 1993 (emphasis in original). Although the Justices are not automatically recused, they stated that they would personally recuse themselves from cases involving a law firm in which a relative is a partner who shares profits. The Justices explained:
"It seems to us that in virtually every case before us with retained counsel there exists a genuine possibility that success or failure will affect the amount of the fee, and hence a genuine possibility that the outcome will have a substantial effect upon each partner's compensation. Since it is impractical to assure ourselves of the absence of such consequences in each individual case, we shall recuse ourselves from all cases in which appearances on behalf of parties are made by firms in which our relatives are partners, unless we have received from the firm written assurance that income from Supreme Court litigation is, on a permanent basis, excluded from our relatives' partnership shares."
Id. Thus, although the seven Justices rejected a per se recusal policy like that set forth in Potashnick, 609 F.2d 1101 (5th Cir.1980), they decided, in the interest of practicality, that they would recuse themselves from all such cases unless they "received from the firm written assurance that income from Supreme Court litigation is, on a permanent basis, excluded from [their] relatives' partnership shares." "Statement of Recusal Policy," supra.
[18]  It may also be that there is a difference in the nature of the fee arrangements. For example, contingent fees are dependent on the outcome of litigation, while noncontingent fixed or hourly fees are not.
[19]  The JIC has listed the following as "other factors" to be considered:

"[W]hether the lawyer-relative would receive a commission, contingency, or bonus from the instant case, or all of the firm's cases for a time period; whether the relative would receive a salary increase when the firm reaches a certain dollar amount in a given time period; the degree of kinship between the judge and the relative; the number of cases the firm has before the judge; and any other connections, dealings or relationships of the judge to other members of the relative's law firm."
Ala. Jud. Inquiry Comm'n Adv. Op. 93-500 (August 31, 1993).
[20]  Justice Kennedy's vote regarding the motion to recuse was made prior to his resignation on June 11, 1999.