A liberal group that has filed suit to change the way Alabama judges are elected isn’t likely to get very far, according to a constitutional law expert in the state. The lawsuit – filed by the NAACP Alabama chapter and four black voters – alleges the state of Alabama violates the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against African Americans. John Eidsmoe, senior counsel for the Foundation for …
Despite whites making up just under 70 percent of Alabama’s population, they hold 100 percent of the state’s civil and criminal appellate courts. In addition, Alabama’s Supreme Court has only had three African-Americans on its bench in the past 36 years, according to a lawsuit from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Many law firms have joined the NAACP’s …
A voting rights lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to do away with the at-large elections of judges who sit on Alabama’s three appellate courts, including the Alabama Supreme Court. The at-large election system has been racially discriminatory towards African Americans, who make up more than a quarter of the state’s population, according to the lawsuit that suggests election by single-member …
A judge this morning ordered a stay – or hold – in the litigation of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former ALEA Secretary Spencer Collier. Montgomery Circuit Judge Eugene Reese ordered the stay in the lawsuit filed against Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, current ALEA director Stan Stabler, Bentley’s former advisor Rebekah Mason and her RCM Communications Inc., and the dark money group …
A group of black Alabama legislators has joined a federal lawsuit alleging that racial bias fueled a state law blocking Birmingham from implementing a local minimum wage. An amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court Thursday says the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus and several black state lawmakers have joined in the lawsuit against the state of Alabama, the city …
Gov. Robert Bentley this week requested, and received, a court date to fight allegations made by former ALEA head Spencer Collier in his wrongful termination lawsuit. On Wednesday, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick set a hearing for July 26 for all motions pending in the lawsuit.