Concerns over public health at a closed Cullman County Courthouse may have limited the size of the crowd Friday, but it did nothing to dampen the joy of family, colleagues, and close friends who showed up at a swearing-in ceremony to witness local native Chad Floyd take his oath of office to become the state’s newest district judge.

Floyd took his vow from Circuit Judge Greg Nicholas to become the newest judge for Alabama’s 32nd Judicial Circuit, as his family — wife Amanda, sons Cole and Cooper, and daughter Audrey — stood by his side. The formal ceremony was followed by a more relaxed “robing” rite, which saw Floyd don his black jurist’s robe before the public inside a Cullman County courtroom for the very first time.

Thanking those in attendance, as well as the Cullman community that raised him as a West Point High School graduate, Floyd accepted his new role with optimism and humility.

“Along the way, how lucky I’ve been to have parents, and a family, and a support system around me,” he said, relating a moving story about defending a childhood friend before the court in his early career as an attorney. “As a judge on the bench, I always want to be humble, and to recognize that everybody doesn’t have the same opportunities that I had, and that everyone has made some poor decisions along the way.”

Floyd also thanked Kim Chaney, the longtime former district judge whose seat he replaces on the bench. Chaney retired from his 27-year career last month, leaving the vacancy that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey tapped Floyd to fill after an extensive vetting process that offered interviews to seven local attorneys.

A native of Cullman County, Floyd obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama after graduating from West Point, working outside the legal field for three years before attending law school in 2002 at the Mississippi College School of Law. He returned to Cullman in 2006, and went into private legal practice — where he remained until 2016, when the county commission hired him full time as county attorney.

The courthouse where the ceremony took place is currently closed to everyone but employees, and Nicholas said that current public health protocols limiting large gatherings had prevented Friday’s ceremony from drawing more people. Once present precautions over the coronavirus pandemic have ended, he added, the court plans to hold a separate welcoming event for Floyd — one that will extend a wider invitation to the community.