Alabama Cancels Execution After Court Requires Pastor
An Alabama inmate on Thursday won a reprieve from a scheduled lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber.
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Alabama
Alabama Would Be 1st State to Execute an Inmate This Year
Alabama would be the first state to carry out an execution this year if allowed to proceed with plans to put to death a 51-year-old inmate convicted in the shotgun slaying of a police detective’s sister decades ago.
Read moreEvent Permits
Two anti-abortion activists failed to establish a violation of their constitutional rights in their suit against the city of Huntsville, Alabama, challenging the city’s permit ordinance and noise provision in its special event permits, the Eleventh Circuit ruled. The activists didn’t prove that the provision “left them without ample alternative channels of communication.”
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Longtime Alabama Senator Won’t Seek Reelection in 2022
After a career spanning more than four decades in Washington, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama announced Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022.
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Imam Sues Alabama for Not Letting Him Join Muslim Inmates in Execution Room
An imam filed a federal lawsuit against Alabama on Thursday for barring him from accompanying a Muslim death row inmate during his 2019 execution.
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Vaccine Skepticism Lurks in Town Famous for Syphilis Study
The coronavirus immunization campaign is off to a shaky start in Tuskegee and other parts of Macon County where many have relatives who were subjected to unethical government experimentation during the syphilis study.
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1 Dead, at Least 17 Injured After Tornado in Alabama
A teenager huddling in his basement was killed and several of his family members were critically injured when a tornado blew a tree onto their home and it collapsed on top of them, police said Tuesday.
Read moreDriver’s Licenses
A federal court in Alabama ruled in favor of three transgender women who sued the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency after they were not able to obtain drivers’ licenses with female sex designations because of the agency’s surgery requirements, which require such license applicants to complete gender reassignment surgery.
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Illegal Winery Busted at Alabama Town’s Sewage Plant
Sheriff’s officials say they’ve busted an illegal winery that was operating at a municipal sewage plant in a small north Alabama town.
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Pharmacy Reimbursement Law Gets Supreme Court Backing
The Supreme Court was mostly unanimous Thursday in upholding an Arkansas law that stabilizes how pharmacies are reimbursed for prescriptions.
Read moreAlabama Prisons
The federal government sued the state of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Corrections Wednesday, alleging that the state’s prisons fail to protect prisoners from violence and sexual abuse and for keeping unsafe and unsanitary conditions within the prisons.
Read moreJail Outbreak
The Southern Poverty Law Center claims the sheriff of Tuscaloosa County has violated the Alabama Open Records Act by refusing to release information about Covid-19 cases in the county jail.
Read moreNoise and Nuisance
A woman was properly convicted of “creating a loud noise and nuisance” at a federal courthouse in Alabama for her argument with security officers who wouldn’t let her enter an office, the Second Circuit ruled. The woman claimed she had no idea her conduct was illegal but the circuit court said a “reasonable person would understand that shouting at security officers in a courthouse” is not an innocent act.
Read moreAbortion Rulings
The Alabama Supreme Court dismissed a man’s wrongful death suit against an abortion clinic, which provided a pill to his ex-girlfriend to end her pregnancy. The suit did not comply with appellate procedure. A concurring opinion in the case signed by four of the court’s justices urges the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule landmark abortion rulings Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and encourages “other courts across the country to raise their judicial voices” by pointing out “constitutional infirmities” of the rulings.
Read moreEndangered Mussel
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to list the Canoe Creek clubshell — a freshwater mussel in Alabama — as endangered, and will designate 36 miles of river as critical habitat.
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Zeta Knocks Out Power as It Roars Through the South
Leaving millions in the dark, Zeta continued to tear through the South as a tropical storm Thursday morning after making landfall in Louisiana the day before as a strong Category 2 hurricane.
Read moreVoting in Alabama
Staying part of a lower court’s order, the 11th Circuit reinstated Alabama’s witness and photo ID requirements for absentee ballots but declined to reinstate a de facto ban on curbside voting in the state.
Read moreAtheist Voters
Four Alabama atheists filed a civil rights lawsuit challenging the inclusion of the words “so help me God” in the state’s voter registration form, claiming election officials have refused to provide a secular option.
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Judge Rules Three Provisions of Alabama Voting Law Unconstitutional
A federal judge in Alabama ruled parts of that state’s voting restrictions violated the law and made voting inaccessible to medically vulnerable people.
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Water Rescues Underway as Hurricane Sally Drenches Gulf Coast
Hurricane Sally slammed the Alabama coast and Florida Panhandle on Wednesday morning after strengthening overnight to a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 105 mph and drenching rains forecasters warn will bring catastrophic flooding.
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