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Southern Poverty Law Center

Elections

Voter suppression is still a deciding factor in Alabama elections

John Merrill is going to write me a snarky letter, and that’s OK.  I’m going to write a snarky column about Alabama’s voter suppression — and Merrill’s role in it — and I don’t write these things expecting everyone to agree. I write them so at least a few people will at least consider that … Continued
February 11, 2020

New report offers advice for fixing state’s charter school issues

Local school boards should have more authority in approving proposed charter schools and parents of students attending the charters should have a larger role on the schools’ governing boards.  Those were two of the suggestions contained within a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which reviewed problems with Alabama’s charter school law and the … Continued
February 6, 2020

SPLC names human rights activist Margaret Huang as president and CEO

Internationally renowned human and civil rights leader Margaret Huang has been hired as the new president and chief executive officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and SPLC Action Fund. She begins the role on April 20. Huang, who currently serves as executive director of Amnesty International USA, has devoted her 25-year career to championing … Continued
February 4, 2020

SPLC sues Montgomery County Board of Education for expulsion of two students after Lee High shooting

The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a pair of lawsuits against the Montgomery County Board of Education, alleging that the district violated two students’ rights to due process before expelling them.  The SPLC says two students were unjustly expelled after a shooting at Robert E. Lee High School in February 2019 where a 17-year-old … Continued
January 23, 2020

State not hiring nearly enough prison correctional officers to meet court order, according to court filing

In a court filing Friday an attorneys for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections highlighted how few correctional officers the state has hired since a federal judge ordered at least 2,000 more be sent to work inside the state’s deadly, overcrowded prisons.  The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), in a statement … Continued
January 7, 2020

Prisons are one of the top issues to watch in 2020

A new decade has begun and the Legislature returns to Montgomery in just 29 days. As the Alabama Legislature begins a new session there are many issues that will confront the state politically in the upcoming year. Nothing is more serious than the issues facing the state and its much maligned prison system. Governor Kay … Continued
January 6, 2020

SPLC applauds Montgomery Council for repealing panhandling ban

On Tuesday the Montgomery City Council repealed an ordinance that criminalized panhandling, which had drawn protests from members of the clergy, homeless advocates and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The original ordinance was passed in July and required anyone cited or arrested for panhandling to serve a minimum two days in jail. Mayor Steven Reed … Continued
December 20, 2019

Federal judge concerned over prison staffing, undertrained fill-ins

A federal judge last week pressed attorneys representing the Alabama Department of Corrections about staffing problems that the plaintiff’s attorneys argued may run afoul of a court order to increase correctional officers in the state’s overcrowded, understaffed prisons.  U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in the Dec. 6 hearing, first reported by Alabama Daily News,  asked … Continued
December 12, 2019

SPLC: Stephen Miller, another former Sessions staffer pushed anti-immigrant stories to Breitbart

In the second story in a series published Thursday by the Southern Poverty Law Center,  emails show that Trump senior advisor and former aide to then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, had ties to an anti-immigrant think-tank.  The emails also shows that Miller wasn’t the only Sessions staffer to have been pushing for anti-immigrant stories … Continued
November 15, 2019

SPLC: Emails show Trump advisor, former Jeff Sessions staffer, Stephen Miller promoted white nationalism

Leaked emails show Stephen Miller, Trump senior advisor and former staffer for then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, promoted white nationalist ideas and racist immigration stories to a conservative journalist, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which broke the story on Tuesday.  The SPLC’s first story in a series on the more than 900 emails details … Continued
November 14, 2019