Mandatory minimums, when assigned to a crime in the penal code, set the lowest available punishment that a judge may sentence an offender to for a specified crime. Typically a defined term of imprisonment, mandatory minimums have been in place ...
State’s Authority In Family Law Matters Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court
Delivering a strong win for family values, the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 ruling in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl also reinforced a state’s authority in matters of adoption. Four months after his biological child was adopted, a Cherokee Indian father ...
Gettysburg and the Declaration of Independence: Anniversaries offer time for reflection
This 237th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence could be slightly overshadowed by another anniversary…the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Considering the abuses of government power that have dominated the news in recent week ...
Alabama’s Shelby County Receives Favorable Ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court ruled today in favor of Shelby County, rendering unconstitutional the outdated formula that determines which states and jurisdiction are restricted from making changes in their elections without oversight from the federal governme ...
Accountability Act Provides Incentives, Tools for Failing Schools
The State Superintendent of Education has released the names of 78 Alabama schools that are now designated as ‘failing’ under the Alabama Accountability Act. Under the Act, students who are enrolled in or assigned to these schools will now have ...
Obama’s Anti-Coal Agenda Would Be a Blow to Alabama
Alabama’s economy is on a positive growth track, but the latest liberal winds blowing in from Washington have the potential to devastate our State’s economy. In 2012 I helped to pass an economic incentive plan in the Alabama State Senate designed to ...
Obama Seeks to Transform Nation’s Second Highest Court
This week, President Obama nominated three judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often viewed as the second highest court in America. Confirmation of these nominees would mark a substantial shift in the ideology o ...
Following the Money in Four Alabama City Governments
Since the beginning of the Great Recession, cities across the United States have struggled to keep their municipal budgets in the black, balancing rising costs for healthcare, energy and pensions while facing reductions in revenues. Some of Alabama’s ...
Cap-and-Trade by Other Means
The Alabama Public Service Commission recently held a public hearing concerning Alabama Power Company rates. But the hearing was really about an effort initiated by environmental groups determined to impose cap-and-trade type regulations on Ala ...
The Irony of DOJ’s Overreach
This week, the Obama Administration finds itself defending not one but three extremely serious, possibly history-making, constitutional violations by high ranking officials over the past year. Fortunately, President Obama has assured us that he has v ...