News & Commentary

Now that the election season has come to an end, we want to take time to reflect on what we have learned during the midterm campaigns and look ahead for where Alabama must go from here.

America has spent the last 50 years becoming the world’s largest incarcerator. It’s gotten there with substantial help from elected local prosecutors, who have used their extraordinary power to lock people up in jails and prisons at unprecedented rates and for unconscionably long amounts of time.

In Alabama, politicians are attempting to enshrine, via ballot, anti-abortion rhetoric in the state constitution and assign legal rights to fetuses.

Amendment 1 purports to allow public bodies, including public schools, to display the Ten Commandments on government property. But, there’s a huge catch that legislators are hoping voters won’t notice.

For the ACLU of Alabama, the month of September was a busy month! So in case you missed it, here are some highlights on our work with the upcoming midterms, our effort to reform the criminal justice system, and a new case with First Amendment implications.

The ACLU and ACLU of Alabama, alongside the Cato Institute and the Constitutional Accountability Center, filed an amicus brief in Gamble v. United States urging the Supreme Court to end the “dual-sovereignty” loophole for good.

Alabama’s prisons are notoriously some of the worst in the country. They’re violent. They’re underfunded. They’re unable to handle the mental health care needs of those incarcerated. And they’re also overcrowded.

Every day I approach my work with the question, “how can I find solutions to our communities’ greatest challenges?”.

Thank you for supporting the ACLU of Alabama. As you know, our team has been working zealously this year in the fight for equality and human rights. This newsletter will be a roundup of ACLU's top news stories.