Alabama top stories in brief

• A fire damaged a warehouse at Birmingham Recycling and Recovery on May 4th. The complex has been closed since then while repairs were enacted and is set to reopen today. 

• The Senate Judiciary committee held a public hearing last week on SB127, a bill to expand the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse to file claims. Currently, Alabama says that a lawsuit brought forward for a sex offense must be brought within 6 years of a victim turning 19, which puts the victim at 25. “The average age at which a survivor of child sex abuse comes forward is actually the age of 52,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Merika Coleman. If passed, SB127 would extend the statute of limitations to 36 years after the victim turned 19, giving them until they turned 55. 

• The House State Government Committee passed a bill last week that would make the “Yellowhammer Cookie” the official cookie of the state. The cookie includes both pecans and peanuts. According to HB421, “peanuts and pecans are crops of historical and agricultural significance to the state of Alabama.”

• The Alabama Democratic Party has attracted attention from national party leadership due to recent changes to its bylaws. In a 63-49 vote, the State Democratic Executive Committee eliminated the party’s youth, LGBTQ+ and disabled caucuses, and reduced the power of the Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic and Native American caucasus. A press release acquired by the Alabama Reflector stated that “The LGBTQ+ were not kicked out, the Native Americans were not kicked out, the Youth were not kicked out, the Asians were not kicked out, nobody was kicked out.”

• The Alabama House approved HB122 last Tuesday, which would prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities who need organ transplants. The bill now moves to the senate. 

• A newly introduced bill, HB454, would repeal provisions that prohibit prosecution following an abortion. It would allow those who receive abortions to be prosecuted for murder and assault. Currently, Alabama’s Human Life Protection Act, which outlaws abortions, specifically states that “a woman who receives an abortion will not be held criminally culpable or civilly liable for receiving the abortion.” The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee to determine whether it will come back to the floor for a vote. 

New bills would allow Alabama Attorney General to redact names in contracts

New bills in the Alabama Legislature would allow for the Attorney General’s office to redact information from professional service contracts. 

When SB222 was discussed in the Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development committee, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Gurley made no mention of the new privileges for the AG’s office and described the bill as a cleanup bill. 

The bill was given a favorable report by the committee. 

On the floor of the Senate on May 2, Givhan submitted an amendment to his bill to add one more member to the contract review committee from both the house and the senate. When asked why by Senator Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, Givhan explained that he forgot to ask to be added to the committee and had been on it since its founding. Givhan later withdrew his amendment. 

The bill was passed by the senate 34-0. 

In addition to the changes regarding the Attorney General’s office, the 32 page bill also gave control of state-owned property that is currently functioning as a parking lot to the State House Legislative Council to construct a new state house, changed the date the legislature convenes for the first year of a regular session, made changes to the contract review committee, provided contingencies for a vacancy in the office of Lieutenant Governor, repealed portions of election law regarding contested elections and made various other changes. 

Rep. Prince Chestnut asked why the bill had so many different items contained within it. Prince pointed out that he had a legal degree, but still found himself struggling to keep up with all the things the bill addressed. 

“It’s hard for me to follow, and I went to school for this,” Chestnut said to Rep. Chris Pringle, the sponsor of the house version of the bill HB372. 

Like Givhan, Pringle described the bill as a “cleanup bill” when presenting it in committee. Members of the Alabama State Government Committee questioned this bill much more than SB222. 

“What does the building of the new statehouse have to do with all the other stuff you added in here?” Representative John Rogers asked Pringle. 

Pringle described the bill as a catch-all designed to clean things up. Regarding the specific concerns with the AG’s offices, he said the goal was to prevent harassment. 

“We’re trying to protect our expert witnesses in different cases from being harassed and intimidated by outside forces,” said Pringle. 

This would not keep the information hidden indefinitely. Pringle explained that after the case was taken to trial, the names would be revealed as part of the discovery period. 

Chestnut also expressed concern regarding the fact that the bill would allow the Attorney General to contract outside attorneys and experts without disclosing who they were hiring.

Pringle explained that the names of these groups or individuals would still be revealed after filing.

There is still concern from some that this would prevent proper scrutiny from members of the public of government decisions. 

“Sometimes it takes years for a case to be resolved, so this is something that means there will be no public scrutiny or accountability for contracts for years,” said Randy Susskind, deputy director at the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that advocates for social justice issues, in an interview with Alabama Reflector. “At that point it will too be late to question the contracts.”

SB222 has been enrolled and is waiting to see if Governor Ivey will sign off on it.

Our articles you might have missed

• The Alabama legislature recently passed a bill that made changes to the rules of succession for county sheriffs. You can read all the details in last week’s roundup.

Update on The Sunrise News

• We recently made a pretty big change to our subscription model. Instead of having member specific content on our website after July 31 as we had originally planned, we’ve created membership tiers on Ko-Fi. None of our content will be restricted in any way, but everyone who contributes on Ko-Fi will gain access to specific benefits. This means that The Alabama Roundup will remain free every week instead of being limited to every other week for non-paying subscribers. Check out our Ko-Fi page to see what specific benefits come with each tier.