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Alabama receives low rating in Human Rights Campaign’s State Equality Index

Alabama was placed in the lowest-rated category for the fifth year in a row in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Equality Federation Institute’s fifth annual State Equality Index. The SEI is a comprehensive report that details statewide laws and policies that affect LGBTQ people and their families and assesses how well states are protecting … Continued
February 1, 2019

Terminal corruption and its accomplices

There is at present a deliberate, brazen unraveling of the Republican’s signature 2010 legislation on ethics. Bastardization of the laws are not only happening at the so-called Alabama Ethics and Reform and Clarification Commission, but it’s also taking place at the state’s Ethics Commission where a group of appointed individuals are interpreting ethics and campaign … Continued
October 8, 2018

Ethics Commission gives itself more power to reduce penalties for campaign law violators

The Alabama Ethics Commission is again making it less burdensome to violate campaign reporting laws. In a 3-0 vote on Wednesday (with two abstentions), the Commission voted to give itself the authority to reduce the number of offenses levied against candidates and political action committees (PACs) that violate campaign finance reporting rules. Typical violations occur … Continued
October 4, 2018

Illegal immigrants and census

Conservative Republicans, like Jeff Sessions, have been obsessed with illegal immigrants for years. Sessions is and has always been a stickler for obeying the laws of our land. He is the most honest, upright, squeaky clean, politician I have ever seen in my lifetime of observing politics in Alabama. He is like Dudley Do Right, … Continued
September 12, 2018

Snakes, canaries and the party of corruption

There’s all this talk about a “Blue Wave” this November in the midterm elections. Those “midterms” are also the major elections for Alabama. What kind of Blue Wave we might have in Alabama is anybody’s guess. If one or two Democrats won their legislative or statewide races, that’d be a Blue Wave in Alabama these … Continued
August 23, 2018

Sessions allocates four new prosecutors to Alabama’s Northern District

The Northern District of Alabama will receive four new federal prosecutors as part of a nationwide increase of resources from the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, who oversees the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of Northern Alabama, announced the increase in resources as part of an … Continued
June 5, 2018

Cobb field director charged with violating sex offender employment restrictions

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday arrested Paul Littlejohn III, the Jefferson County field director for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Bell Cobb, charging him with violating Alabama’s sex offender laws. Littlejohn, 55, was convicted in 1985 of the rape and sodomy of a 30-year-old woman, according to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency records. He was released … Continued
May 11, 2018

Discriminating against companies contracted to secure border is unacceptable

It has recently been reported that several city and state governments are considering laws and ordinances to blacklist federal contractors because they wish to work on bolstering the infrastructure at the southern border, including construction of a wall. For example, the California State Senate considered legislation that would force the state to drop its investments … Continued
April 30, 2018

Attorney paid by unnamed client to write, negotiate HB317

Is it appropriate for a lawyer working for an unidentified private client to write laws for a department of state government? Doesn’t the public have a right to know if a private individual pays for a bill to be written? How is it ethical for a piece of legislation to be sponsored by a member … Continued
April 17, 2018

Is leadership in the Alabama Legislature planning a bait-and-switch on HB317?

The wall is crumbling. Last week, a small group of senators held firm against an ethics bill, HB317, that would, among other things, exclude full-time and part-time “economic developers” from laws requiring them to register as lobbyists. Heading into what should be the final week of the 2018 session, sources say that small group has … Continued
March 27, 2018