Alabama top stories in brief

• The Alabama Library Association and advocacy group Read Freely Alabama both sent memos last week imploring state legislators to prevent the Alabama Public Library Service from instituting changes to its administrative code that were approved last month. The changes to the code require Alabama libraries to employ selection criteria to safeguard minors from accessing material that is deemed sexually explicit. The changes also regulate how materials are organized in libraries and requires that all materials must be approved in advance before being advertised to children. Groups, such as Read Freely Alabama, have criticized these policies for being overly vague, engaging in censorship and targeting LGBTQ-centric topics. Now, both groups are arguing that APLS did not follow procedures to modify the rules by not allowing stakeholders enough time to review proposed changes before they were passed. 

• A bill that aims to provide worker’s compensation benefits for full-time education employees in the state has been pre-filed ahead of next year’s legislative session. The bill, labeled as SB1, outlines that salary payments for injured employees would continue for up to 90 days following an injury, with opportunities for extension as well. Additionally, under this bill, the Public Education Employees Health Insurance Program will continue to fund any medical bills. The bill also outlines that employees will be informed of their rights within seven days of their injury, rather than the current standard of 30 days. 

• Public universities throughout the state will see a 7.24% increase in state funding for the 2025 fiscal year. This increase will bring the total appropriations for Alabama’s public universities to about $1.6 billion, compared to $1.5 billion for the 2024 fiscal year. Funding directed towards the state’s low-income student assistance program will also increase by $500,000, bringing the total funding to $9.5 million. However, Alabama still lags behind many other states in providing need-based aid, with 2.2% of the state’s higher education funding going towards financial aid support during the 2023 fiscal year, compared to the national average of 10%.

• Three couples whose lawsuits against fertility providers led the Alabama Supreme Court to rule frozen embryos could be considered children in February have now asked judges to rule on a new state law that grants in vitro fertilization providers legal immunity. The state law was passed quickly as a stopgap measure following the state’s Supreme Court ruling — a ruling which came after three couples filed wrongful death lawsuits against a fertility clinic and hospital after their frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed. Following this ruling, several fertility clinics throughout the state stopped providing services due to liability concerns, prompting state lawmakers to pass legislation to resume IVF services. The new lawsuit argues that this law is unconstitutional because it fails to acknowledge the rights of unborn children that are outlined in the state constitution. 

• A federal court denied a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by inmates against Alabama’s state prisons. The lawsuit alleges that state prisons utilize slave labor by forcing inmates to perform labor through work-release programs, often under harsh working conditions with little pay, as well as by granting parole to Black inmates at lower rates than white inmates. The plaintiff says these actions violate the ex post facto and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. U.S. District Court Judge Corey L. Maze of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama said in his ruling, however, that the plaintiffs failed to prove that parole standards were intentionally racially discriminatory. Because a preliminary injunction was not granted, the lawsuit will proceed without any immediate changes sought by the plaintiff. 

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• In Alabama, fishing is a common pastime. Fly fishing, however, is less common here than in other states. In the latest edition of The Longleaf Hiker, Xander Swain visits the Alabama Sipsey Fork — the only place in Alabama to fish year-round for trout — for his first experience with fly fishing.

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