Voting Rights Impaired: Alabama man fights voter suppression of people with disabilities

  Eric Peebles can do so many things.  

  He runs his own successful consulting business with a nationwide reach. He held a university faculty job and holds seats on two statewide boards. He gives advice to health care and consumer officials across his home state of Alabama, even though he struggles to breathe when he talks because of a condition called spastic cerebral palsy. 

  For all the things he can do, there is one important thing he cannot, and that is to vote – at least not easily, simply, and privately. Especially during a pandemic. 

Oklahoma student forced to remove a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt he wore to school

  Various sources report that a student in Deer Creek, Oklahoma, was forced to remove a t-shirt containing the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” The ACLU of Oklahoma has written a letter in support of the student’s right to wear the t-shirt and explains that school officials should apologize.

  The ACLU has a point, as the U.S. Supreme Court explained years ago in Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. Sch. Dist. (1969) that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The Court in Tinker protected the right of several students from Iowa to wear black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1540: Jeff Sessions cannot do justice as head of the Justice Department

  It was March of 1986. I was in Washington, D.C. before the Senate Judiciary Committee testifying against the nomination of Jefferson Beauregard Session for Federal District Judge. His nomination was not confirmed. Now, some 30 years later, we are faced with his nomination again. This time, it’s for United States Attorney General to head the U.S. Justice Department. This governmental agency helps pick all nominees for federal judges, U.S. attorneys and some other positions. More importantly, the Attorney General is charged with doing justice for all. In my opinion, Jeff Sessions cannot do justice as head of the Justice Department.

25 years of of Roy Moore's unconstitutional efforts to mix law and religion

  Since his appointment as a state circuit judge in 1992, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has put his personal religious views above the law and the U.S. Constitution, frequently bringing religion into the courtroom and basing judicial opinions on his Biblical beliefs. He has been removed from office once for disobeying the federal judiciary on the matter, and now he again faces a trial for violating judicial ethics for refusing to recognize federal court rulings on same-sex marriage. Here is a timeline of events leading up to the September 28 trial in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

Human rights groups ask federal court to order Alabama probate judges to issue same-sex marriage licenses

  The Southern Poverty Law Center and a group of leading civil rights organizations yesterday asked a federal court to expand a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage and to order all of the state’s probate judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

  The action comes amid a confrontation between the Alabama Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.

Wendy McElroy: Challenging the 911 Landlord Law

  On September 19, a federal court in Philadelphia ruled on a challenge to the 911 Landlord Law in Norristown, Pennsylvania. The lawsuit had been brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a local law firm on behalf of Lakisha Briggs. The ruling? A full trial on the challenge to the law can proceed.

  Such "911 Landlord Laws" are also known as "nuisance" or "crime-free housing" ordinances. The ordinances vary from city to city, but certain elements are common: to keep their rental licenses, landlords are encouraged or required to perform criminal background checks on rental applicants; they are encouraged or required to use a "crime-free lease," by which any crime on the premises breaks the contract — even if the tenant was a victim and did nothing more than call the police; furthermore, the police can demand eviction of a "nuisance" tenant, and landlords who do not comply can be repeatedly fined or worse. In some cities, landlords can also be forced to pay the cost of police visits.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Come hell or high water

  As promised, the Alabama Legislature revisited their much publicized immigration law during the just completed regular session. They said they were going to revise the original 2011 act and that is precisely what they did.

  This Republican dominated legislature does what they say they are going to do. They may not be deliberative but they are truly disciplined, organized, productive and conservative.

  Their original act was much maligned by liberal groups throughout the state and nation. It brought a great deal of negative media attention from every corner of the country and the globe. This adverse publicity did not deter the legislative leadership or the governor. They are determined to rid Alabama of illegal immigrants regardless of the cost in dollars to defend the law or adverse publicity affecting our national image. Their efforts have already proved costly in both venues. The law is being and will continue to be challenged in court by the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center.