Alabama

July 30, 2018 - North Carolina lawmakers recently called a special session to make major changes to election ballots. The changes aim to influence the outcome of the state Supreme Court election and referenda on constitutional amendments that would give the legislature more power. 

July 20, 2018 - With President Trump nominating a judge with a record of hostility to voting rights to the U.S. Supreme Court, state courts and constitutions are likely to play an increasingly critical role in protecting those rights — but those institutions are under political assault by conservatives.

July 20, 2018 - President Trump recently commuted the federal prison sentence of Alice Marie Johnson of Tennessee, who was serving life without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. The move came after a decade of effort by criminal justice reform advocates, who now see hope for more systemic change in a bill that's been introduced in Congress by a key GOP leader.

July 11, 2018 - The organization's special rapporteur on extreme poverty presented a report last month documenting his disturbing findings in states including Alabama, Georgia and West Virginia.

June 18, 2018 - Once deemed among the most restrictive states for ballot access, North Carolina changed its law recently and will have two new parties on this year's ballot. But other Southern states are less welcoming to political newcomers.

June 6, 2018 - At the same time President Trump is appointing federal judges with a history of opposing equal rights for LGBTQ people, national conservative groups are spending big to elect LGBTQ-hostile judges to state supreme courts.

June 1, 2018 - This November, voters in Alabama and West Virginia will weigh in on ballot questions about adding anti-abortion provisions to state constitutions. The legislatively-placed measures are part of a broader effort to limit women's access to reproductive health care that's made dramatic headway in Southern states in recent years.