News & Commentary

Last week, the ACLU caught up with physician Yashica Robinson, an abortion provider from Alabama and recipient of the 2017 George Tiller, M.D. Award from Physicians for Reproductive Health.

In a guest blog post, the Rosa Parks Museum reflects on the significance of Juneteenth, which commemorates the official, final abolishment of slavery in the United States. This date celebrates freedom, equality, and African American culture.

The 2017 legislative session ended May 19, and to many, it seemed to be among the most contentious of recent years. In addition to the removal of Chief Justice Roy Moore and the resignation of Governor Robert Bentley, there were heated debates over many issues such as the federal court-ordered reapportionment, prison construction, confederate monuments, and a racist joke about monkeys.

Here are a few of the basics on what public schools can and can’t do when it comes to dress codes.

Historically, photos and film were absolutely critical during the Civil Rights Movement in providing outside pressure from the larger American public who could no longer ignore the treatment of Blacks in the South. Very much the same thing is happening today.

Approved in 1901, the Alabama Constitution disqualifies from voting any citizen convicted of a “crime involving moral turpitude.” That may at first seem racially neutral, but the document as well as the moral turpitude provision were designed with clear racist intent. The drafters intentionally sought to subvert the 14th and 15th Amendments’ protection against racial discrimination in voting by using the moral turpitude provision, in conjunction with discriminatory criminal justice enforcement, to target Alabama’s Black citizens.

Alabama Senate Bill 193 would have authorized the formation of a Briarwood Church police force – police officers with full state authority answerable only to the Church. It passed the Senate in April and was expected to pass the House; however, it never reached the floor for a vote. As a result, the bill died this legislative session, but the support behind it remains, and the ACLU of Alabama expects to see something like it again.

Amnesty International released a new report on the dangerous consequences of prosecuting pregnant women who use drugs. America’s obsession with the “war on drugs” has criminalized addiction and led to the incarceration of millions of Americans across the country. Unfortunately, thanks to Alabama’s “chemical endangerment” law and other “fetal assault” laws like it, this attitude has also criminalized pregnancy.

President Trump signed an executive order forming a commission to investigate voter fraud and voter suppression after repeatedly claiming, without evidence, that the United States has a “major problem” with illegal voting.