Alabama has been in a state of utter chaos following a Sept. 28 court ruling upholding some of the worst provisions of the state's harsh anti-immigrant law.
State legislatures are ground zero in the fight for civil liberties. Although they may not attract as much attention as debates in Congress or arguments in the Supreme Court, they are the source of unprecedented assaults on our most fundamental rights.
Three troubling trends of the 2011 state legislative session were:
restrictions on accessing abortion;
racial profiling bills targeting Latinos and immigrants; and
measures suppressing the right to vote.
Did your state see a battle on one of these issues? Check out this map to learn more.
The ACLU was in a packed federal district court in Birmingham Wednesday arguing, with the U.S. Department of Justice and the bishops of the Episcopal, Catholic and Methodist churches, that Alabama's new anti-immigrant law, House Bill 56, should be blocked because it is unconstitutional.
The government has filed a suit against Alabama’s draconian anti-immigrant law, which it said conflicts with federal laws and makes it too easy for police to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally.
Modeled on Arizona’s infamous SB 1070 but taking it to even greater extremes, the Alabama law is considered the most pernicious of a series of state anti-immigrant laws passed this year.
The Justice Department lawsuit filed Monday comes on the heels of a class-action challenge filed last month by the ACLU and a coalition of other civil rights organizations charging the law is unconstitutional on multiple grounds. On July 21, the coalition filed a request that the court block the law from taking effect, pending a final ruling on the law’s constitutionality.
By Anna Arceneaux, Staff Attorney, ACLU Capital Punishment Project at 1:52pm
In Alabama, as we’ve discussed here before, elected judges have the authority to override the jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases – in other words, a judge can sentence a person to die even if a jury of his or her peers decides death is not the appropriate punishment.
Jane* is a single mother with three children. She's lived in Birmingham, Alabama, for over a decade, and works hard to provide a stable home for her kids. Jane is a responsible provider and resident of her community; she is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit we just filed against the state of Alabama.
