News

For a moment, let’s assume a few things about the Birmingham metro area.
That the Birmingham mayor and council are the best we’ve had in generations.
That the Jefferson County Commission is in peak form.

And, finally, that cooperation among the many municipalities in our metro area is at an all-time high.

Things are better around here–and there are signs of hope. However, even in a perfect “metro” world we would collectively still have a huge millstone around our necks: A lack of home rule in Alabama. Our state is one of the few in the U.S. that gives up very little power to local governments. Continue reading “Alabama cities suffocated by a system designed for failure”

By the editorial board of The Anniston Star

Here’s a novel idea for Alabama, home to one of the nation’s most overcrowded prison systems: Instead of treating inmates as societal lost causes, treat many of them as reclamation projects who can contribute when they are released.

One step has already been taken. In 2017, a change in Alabama state law restored voting rights to thousands of residents who’d lost the franchise because of previous felony convictions. The rub was the nebulous definition of “moral turpitude,” which, in Alabama’s legal mishmash, could be almost anything. All crimes, though, are not equal. Continue reading “Editorial: An Alabama Bill That Makes Sense”

By John Archibald | [email protected]

What’s better, you think? Doing the wrong thing in the right way, or the right thing in the wrong way?

As a state, Alabama chose the former.

It was clear on Day 2 of the 1901 Alabama Constitutional Convention, when newly elected convention president John B. Knox got up to speak in favor of white supremacy. As a matter of law. Continue reading “How Alabama Laid the GroundWork For It’s Own Wrongdoing”

By the editorial board of The Anniston Star

By the time Alabama voters have their say on Nov. 6, Alabama’s state Constitution could grow by 16 more amendments. By our count, the Constitution is inching toward four digits, meaning 1,000 amendments to a document that was ratified in 1901.

Oh, if we’re counting words, the Alabama Constitution is closing in on almost 400,000 words. The Texas Constitution, Alabama’s closest competition when it comes to lengthy state constitutions, clocks in at a mere 88,000 words. They say everything is bigger in the Lone Star State, but they haven’t seen Bama’s governing document, right? Continue reading “Editorial: Constitutional Chaos by Design in Alabama”

In my opening column for the new and improved Yellowhammer News, one of my paragraphs made this assertion:Alabama’s government is far too centralized rather than open to local innovations, which makes it both ossified and much more easily corruptible. It also allows a small number of groups – often known as the “Big Mules” – to wield inordinate power. Now, sometimes they happen to wield it for good purposes. But if they don’t, they should be taken down a peg or two hundred. Continue reading “Quin Hillyer: Alabama Needs Local Option Government”

By Valerie Strauss
March 10, 2017

Alabama has been in the news of late, what with Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s controversial attorney general, hailing from there, and the state’s Republican governor, Robert Bentley, in possible danger of impeachment after he was found to have had a sexually explicit conversation in 2016 with his then-chief adviser.

But there is something else to consider about Alabama that reflects on its history and the country’s current racial divide. It’s about the state constitution, which was written in 1901 and designed to limit local government and disenfranchise blacks. It has been amended more than 800 times since then and is the longest constitution in the country and possibly the world, at what the Council of State Governments says is 388,882 words. Continue reading “FYI, Alabama’s Constitution Still Calls for ‘separate schools for white and colored children’”