Social justice groups set their agenda for 2025 Alabama legislative session

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
February 5, 2025

Social justice advocates plan to prioritize voting rights and reforms to the state’s criminal legal system in the 2025 legislative session.

The ACLU of Alabama released its list of legislative priorities at the end of January, which included protecting free speech and reproductive health, as well as protecting voting rights and the First Amendment.

Along with the list of priorities, the advocacy group has also identified a list of bills it will support and oppose.

“In the bills that we specifically identified, it was really important to us that we focus on freedom and choice, and expansion of both of those things,” said A’Niya Robinson, policy and organizing director for ACLU of Alabama.

The regular session of the Legislature began on Tuesday. Alabama legislative leaders said they planned to emphasize bills targeting crime and immigration.

Other social justice advocates are looking to steer legislators toward reform instead of the status quo, particularly on voting rights and access.

Voting rights has been at the forefront of priority issues since President Donald Trump falsely alleged that the 2020 election had been manipulated that engineered his loss to the eventual winner, President Joe Biden.

In the years following the election, the Alabama Legislature passed bills banning drop boxes for ballots; barring local governments from accepting private money to administer elections and criminalizing certain forms of absentee ballot assistance.

Following a lawsuit from civil rights groups, a federal judge blocked a portion of the law that limited a third party’s ability to provide ballot assistance, ruling that it violated portions of the Voting Rights Act.

“There is a lot happening within this state that feels very alarming,” Robinson said. “For example, if we take voting rights, there have been numerous bills from sessions past, with each bill there seems to be more and more encroachment, and more and more suppression of people’s right to just cast a ballot.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center also plans to advocate for voting rights bills during the session.

“Alabama voters face a range of obstacles that make voting in-person on Election Day a significant challenge — from onerous voter ID requirements and polling precinct changes to the closure of nearly half of the DMV offices in majority-Black counties that issue the required documentation,” the SPLC stated in its list of priorities.

Democratic legislators have filed bills addressing the issue.

Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville filed legislation in the offseason to allow early voting in the state.

HB 97, filed by Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, D-Montgomery, would allow people the opportunity to fix any issues that election managers find with their absentee ballot affidavit.

Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery and Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile,  jointly filed a comprehensive voting rights bill in their respective chambers.

The Senate version, SB 7, automatically restores voting rights for some of those who lost their right to vote in the state. The bill also eliminates the need to provide an excuse to vote by absentee, permit same day voter registration and require the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office to have a statewide voter database. It would also create a Voting Rights Commission in the state that has the power to block measures from local governments that could limit voter access to the ballot box.

Clarke not only filed the companion bill, but also a host of others aimed at expanding people’s right to vote in the state.

The bill, HB 77, would “allow disabled individuals to designate someone to assist them with the absentee voting process, including mailing or hand-delivering their applications and ballots,” she said in a statement she emailed in January.

The ACLU of Alabama will also support bills to reform the criminal legal system.

“When you think about criminal legal reform, you also have to think about the conditions that incarcerated people are living under,” Robinson said. “You think about all the deaths that are occurring and all the violence.”

Civil rights groups also want to see changes to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.  Alabama Arise, for the first time, included reforming the parole system to its legislative priorities.

Thus far, Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, had been one of the few legislators who spearheaded efforts to reform the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, frustrated at the low rate that members have granted parole.

As recently as 2017, the parole rate has declined to single digits, and although the grant rate has increased to slightly more than 20% in recent months according to data from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, England believes that reforms are still needed.

HB 40 would create a Criminal Justice Policy Development Council that would establish and implement a validated risk assessment for people who are incarcerated. This assessment would be used for parole guidelines and to create a classification system for people in prison that gauges their risk for criminal behavior.

It would require the parole board to make public its guidelines that it uses when deciding parole, and it mandates that they state a reason if they make a decision that deviates from the parole guidelines.

The bill also allows parole applicants to appeal decisions by the parole board should they be denied parole.

A message was left with England Tuesday seeking comment.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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