News & Commentary

Agreement Blocks Final Provisions of Anti-Immigrant Law, HB 56, Challenged in Courts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2014

CONTACT:
Inga Sarda-Sorensen, American Civil Liberties Union, 212-549-2666; [email protected]
Rebecca Sturtevant, Southern Poverty Law Center, 802-598-6445; [email protected]
Adela de la Torre, National Immigration Law Center, 213-674-2832; [email protected]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama will not publish a list of purportedly “unlawfully present” immigrants, according to an agreement announced today by civil rights groups that had sued to block publication on the grounds that it would violate individuals’ due process rights and exceed the state’s authority.

The agreement is pending final approval by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division. If approved, it will block the final provision of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law that has been challenged in court. The law, commonly known as HB 56, has been largely eviscerated by legal challenges from the groups, which include the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama Foundation.

“This is yet another victory for Alabama’s immigrant community,” said Sam Brooke, SPLC staff attorney. “Blocking this final vestige of HB 56 is another nail in the coffin for Alabama’s misguided attempt to bully and intimidate immigrants. But even with this victory, meaningful immigration reform is still critically needed. We call on Congress to fix our nation’s broken immigration system, rather than blocking reform under the empty promise that it will be addressed ‘next year.’”

The law provided no notice to people that their name and information would be posted online. It also failed to provide any means for people to remove their names or change their information if the listing was inaccurate or if their immigration status changed – even if they became citizens.

October 6, 2014
CONTACT: Brooke Anderson, ACLU

Law also authorizes state to reveal pregnancies to others without permission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 1, 2014

CONTACT:
Erin White, ACLU National, 212-549-2643, [email protected]
Brooke Anderson, ACLU of Alabama, 334-420-1750, [email protected]

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama today asked a federal court to block a new Alabama law that could force some minors seeking an abortion to stand trial. The law, which applies to minors who cannot safely obtain a parent’s consent and are therefore seeking a judicial bypass of that requirement, goes far beyond any other parental consent law in the country.

For example, it allows the court to appoint a guardian for the minor’s fetus and allow the district attorney and, in some instances, the minor’s parents to cross-examine the minor. In addition, it takes the wholly unprecedented step of allowing any of these parties to disclose the minor’s pregnancy to other people in the minor’s life, including her teachers, her employers and her friends and to call them to testify in court.

"This law aims to shame a young woman into not having an abortion," said Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. "Why should she be put on trial and treated like a criminal for a constitutionally protected procedure?"

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 27, 2014CONTACT: Brooke Anderson, 334-420-1750, [email protected], Ala. – The ACLU of Alabama, together with the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit today in federal court on behalf of a Chilton County pastor whose right to freely practice his faith was violated by a new Alabama law that prevents him from pursuing his ministry and exercising his deeply-held religious beliefs.For over three years, Pastor Ricky Martin, leader of the Triumph Church in Clanton, Ala., and a volunteer prison chaplain, allowed registered sex offenders recently released from prison to live in trailers behind his church. “Pastor Martin believes it is his Christian duty and his calling to help those in need—especially those in dire need and cast out from society,” said Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama.

Calls State’s Basis for Admitting Privileges Requirement “Exceedingly Weak”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 4, 2014

CONTACT:
ACLU Media Office, 212-519-7894, ACLU National, 212-519-7829, [email protected]
Planned Parenthood Media Office, 212-261-4433, [email protected]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A federal judge has struck down a harmful state law that would have severely restricted access to safe, legal abortion by forcing all but two of the licensed health centers in Alabama to stop providing abortions. Laws like these — which are opposed by the American Medical Association (AMA) and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) — single out doctors who provide abortions and require them to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital.

After a searching review, that included a 10-day trial, the judge found that:

The law would actually make women less safe by “undermining the patient-care goals put forward by the State”;
The state’s justifications for the law were “exceedingly weak” and “speculative”;
The law “does not reflect the practice of 21st century medicine:; and
“Evidence compellingly demonstrates” the requirement would “have the striking result of closing three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics;”

In the opinion, the judge wrote that “if this requirement would not … constitute an impermissible undue burden, then almost no regulation, short of those imposing an outright prohibition on abortion, would.” He also noted that the Department of Health found the requirement unnecessary and that existing regulations already protect public health.

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