News & Commentary

After the gas tax special session and the legislative spring break, the 2019 Legislative Session is halfway through. Still, there’s no shortage of bills moving through the legislature with important civil liberties implications.

A trove of photographs depicting brutalized and murdered prisoners in Alabama’s St. Clair Correctional Facility has thrust the treatment of our nation’s 2.3 million incarcerated people into public view. The first horror is what these people have endured in prison. The second horror is that while shocking, it is not a surprise. 

March is Women’s History Month, a month aimed to honor the struggles of women in the past, to celebrate their current achievements, and to inspire women across the globe to continue to fight for a more fair and inclusive future. First celebrated as a single week in March, Women’s History Month became a month-long United States holiday in 1987.

Last Thursday, a bill passed out of the Alabama Senate that would provide Alabamians with the option to contribute their state refund to the “We Build the Wall” organization. They added an amendment that if the funds have not been used within three years, they must be returned to the General Fund.

Now that special session is over with the gas tax increase passing and being signed into law last week, the legislature will begin holding regular committee meetings and discussing bills.

On the first day of session, Governor Kay Ivey called a special session to focus on raising the gas tax to fund infrastructure spending on roads and bridges. A special session is a session called to address a specific focus, in this case, the gas tax.

After the tragic death of E.J. Bradford, Jr., the ACLU of Alabama sought ways to help our community process its grief for E.J. and channel legitimate concerns that government officials might not learn from the tragedy.

Today, the 2019 Alabama Legislative Session begins. We'll also be sending out these updates as weekly emails to keep you informed about what's happening in session and to share tips on how you can make a difference in the legislature. Sign up here.

A family is still grieving after local police killed their son on Thanksgiving night after a gunman opened fire at a mall. But several months after the incident, the Alabama attorney general is still keeping the Bradfords, and the region’s Black community, in the dark about critical details.