Attorneys representing the staff of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six — two student magazines that the University of Alabama suspended in December 2025 — filed an appeal in the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last week, asking the court to overturn a lower court ruling that allowed the university to suspend the publications.

UA suspended and revoked funding for the two publications last year, citing a non-binding memo from then-Attorney General Pam Bondi threatening to revoke federal funding for universities that support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Alice published articles focused on women and Nineteen Fifty-Six published articles focused on Black life and culture on campus.

Attorneys representing the staff of the magazines argued that the suspension counted as viewpoint discrimination. However, in May, a district court refused to issue a permanent injunction that would halt the suspension of the two magazines. The judge in that case, U.S. District Judge Edmund LaCour Jr., said that UA administrators did not partake in viewpoint discrimination because they made their decision based on the magazines’ content and not the viewpoints they represented.

“There is no viewpoint inseparable from the editorial activity within the magazines at issue here, just students interested in publishing content by and for women or Black students, whatever their viewpoint. And without a viewpoint, there can be no viewpoint discrimination,” LaCour wrote in his decision.

In last week’s appeal, attorneys representing the magazines’ staff asked the court to review the district court’s decision, arguing that the lower court’s ruling violates the precedent established in the Supreme Court case, Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that a university can not withhold funding from a student publication based on its content. 

“Closing these magazines because of their editorial perspectives related to race and gender perpetuates discrimination rather than fighting it, as the university claims,” Sam Boyd, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center — which is helping represent the plaintiffs, said at a press conference last week. 

Alabama top stories in brief

State to borrow additional $200 million for Escambia County prison construction

• The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority last week agreed to borrow almost $200 million to build a new 4,000 bed prison in Escambia County.
• This new agreement increases the budget for this new prison to $900 million.
• In 2021, the state legislature approved $1.3 billion to construct two new prisons — one in Elmore County and one in Escambia County. More than $1.25 billion has already been spent to construct the Elmore County facility.
• The Escambia County prison is planned to be built in two phases. The first phase will be built near Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore and will feature more than 2,000 beds and 26 buildings.

Tuberville says he does not plan to participate in gubernatorial debate

• U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville said last week he does not plan to debate Democratic gubernatorial nominee Doug Jones ahead of November’s primary election.
• “There’s no reason to get up and argue about the differences in opinions. We know where the Democrats stand. We know where conservative Republicans stand. I don’t think there is any reason to kind of get into a debate about that because there really is no debate, just differences in opinions,” the Republican nominee said during a visit to the Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce.
• Tuberville also said that he does not “trust polls” about the race. Recent polling found that Tuberville and Jones are polling closely, with 49% of respondents saying they planned to vote for Tuberville and 41% saying they planned to vote for Jones.

TVA to raise data center electricity rates

• The Tennessee Valley Authority — the nation’s largest public utility provider that provides power for much of North Alabama — has announced plans to raise electricity rates for new and existing data centers by 10%.
• The new data center rates will take effect on Oct. 1 and will be phased in over the next three fiscal years.
• The rate change plan creates four rate classes based on the power demand of the data center. It also creates a capacity commitment charge for new and expanding data centers that use more than five megawatts of electricity, covering costs that the data center rate alone does not cover.
• TVA signed onto the Trump administration’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge in March — which called for data centers to cover a greater share of the costs of new infrastructure needed to support them.
• TVA’s 2026 Integrated Resource Plan projects that the Tennessee Valley could need an additional 11 to 32 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2040.

Judge denies new trial for Alabama inmate whose defense attorney had ties to KKK

• Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Charles Elliott last week denied a request for a new trial from Robin “Rocky” Myers, who is currently serving a life-sentence for his alleged role in the death of Ludie Mae Tucker in Decatur in 1991.
• Myers filed the request for a new trial in September 2025 after he learned that his defense attorney during his original trial, John Mays, spoke at nine Ku Klux Klan rallies between 1977 and 1981 and defended Robert Shelton, an imperial wizard of the KKK, in a lawsuit filed against the FBI in 1977. Myers is Black. 
• Elliot said Myer’s argument failed to meet the criteria for the Rule 32 appeals process, which allows those convicted of a crime to present arguments for an appeals process.
• Myer’s current legal representation, in response to Elliot’s ruling, said the question of demonstrated racial prejudice by a defense attorney has never been tested in the court — meaning there was no precedent on which to say that Myer’s argument did not meet the criteria of Rule 32. 
• Myer’s legal team plans to appeal the ruling. 

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