Committee approves youthful offender expungement bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation to allow those charged with misdemeanors as youthful offenders to later have their records expunged.
Several committee members said they thought the records of young offenders were already sealed, but proponents say different judicial circuits around the state handle records differently.
Records would still be available to law enforcement, but wouldn’t show up in background checks done by potential employers and others.
Senate Bill 153 by Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, now goes to the Senate.
Bill bans electronic tobacco and substitute devices for those under 21
Current state law says those under 21 can’t have tobacco or alternative nicotine products or their delivery systems.
Senate Bill 95, approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, adds to the law a ban on any “other electronic battery-powered device capable of being used to deliver any e-liquid, e-liquid substitute, tobacco, CBD oil, THC oil, herbal extract, or nicotine salt or any analog thereof, or any other substance to the individual through the inhalation of vapor…”
Sponsored by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, SB95 has bi-partisan support with 35 co-sponsors.
Star-Spangled Banner requirement advances
Sen. Gerald Allen’s continuing effort to require public schools to broadcast the first stanza of the Star Spangled Banner at least once a week cleared the Senate Education Policy Committee on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 2 is a constitutional amendment that would require voters’ approval. Asked by Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, why an amendment was necessary, Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, said it was important to the future. If in the constitution, lawmakers couldn’t easily reverse the requirement later.
During a public hearing Wednesday, an opponent of the bill pointed to the National Anthem’s third, rarely heard stanza which says, “No refuge could save the hireling and slave; From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Bill criminalizing certain flags from being flown in public stalls in committee
A bill that would both encourage the flying of a 9/11 remembrance flag and criminalize the public flying of most other flags stalled in an Alabama Senate committee on Wednesday.
Sponsored by Sen. Greg Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, Senate Bill 4 would make it a Class C misdemeanor for Alabamians to display any flag on public property outside of 11 exceptions, which include the aforementioned 9/11 remembrance flag known as the Freedom Flag, as well as the United States flag, the American Red Cross flag and others.
The bill has been met with opposition since its introduction last year, opposition from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. Frequently cited issues the proposal included concerns over infringing on freedom of speech, as well as its potential impact on businesses.
“This proposed law has already caused so much confusion; will college students be charged with a misdemeanor if they post a non-American flag in their dorm room?” said Travis Jackson, a vocal advocate for Black Alabamians, during a public hearing.
“Does publicly displaying a Black power pride flag warrant a misdemeanor on a public sidewalk in front of a federal building?”
Former state House representative Patricia Todd, the first openly gay elected official in the state’s history, also spoke out against the proposal.
“I’m not sure why my community has come under attack by this Legislature on a multitude of bills to try to marginalize us,” Todd said.
“I’m a proud member of (the LGBTQ) community, and I want to remind you that we’re your family members, your neighbors, and most importantly, we’re your constituents.”
In response to the public comments, Allen said that his only intent with the bill was to honor the nearly 3,000 Americans who died in the September 11 attacks. Nevertheless, Allen requested that his bill be carried over to the call of the chair, leaving the bill’s path forward up in the air.
Committee approves ‘What is a Woman Act’
An effort to codify into law the definitions of men and women advanced Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, has said her intent with the bill is to both provide legal clarity, and to protect people as it relates to the enforcement of sex discrimination laws and other sex-specific spaces and protections.
The bill has amassed considerable opposition, particularly from the LGBTQ community who say that the bill specifically targets and harms transgender people, whose gender identity may not align with their biological sex. Some lawmakers, including Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, had also taken issue with the fact that the bill failed to account for the existence of intersex people, an umbrella term for those without distinctly male or female reproductive characteristics.
At the committee, the bill was amended to address some of the concerns expressed by the bill’s opponents, including an amendment that protected the ability of medical professionals to, on an infant’s birth certificate, write “unknown” as to the child’s sex under applicable circumstances.
Proposal to impose harsher penalties for discharging firearms into occupied buildings moves forward
Under existing law, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure such as a home or church is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison in Alabama. Rep. A bill that would elevate that charge to a Class A felony – punishable with up to life in prison – saw a favorable review Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, the sponsor of the bill, said that she authored the legislation after hearing countless stories of Alabamians being killed in their homes or places of worship by drive-by shootings.
“I personally have a friend who was killed at a Bible study while praying because someone drove by the church and was shooting,” Drummond said. “I have many of those stories, so this bill would simply take (discharging a firearm in) occupied structures from a Class B (felony) to a Class A.”
Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, proposed Drummond alter the bill to also elevate the charge for discharging a firearm into an unoccupied structure from a Class C felony to a Class B. Drummond said she had already committed to only altering the charge for discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, with committee members agreeing to leave that component unchanged.