News

Nineteen Republican attorneys general have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to forbid Democratic states from suing the oil and gas industry over climate change claims in their courts. They argue these cases, alleging fossil fuel companies misled the public about climate risks, should be a federal matter and could raise energy costs. Democratic attorneys general have called the request partisan and baseless.

Two Republican U.S. senators have teamed up to try to prevent states from banning in vitro fertilization, months after the Alabama state Supreme Court upended access to the procedure by ruling fertilized embryos were children under state law.

The organizations are seeking to reduce the number of people held before having cases settled, and their exposures to the harms of incarceration. They are working with social justice groups across the country to post bail for Black Americans who otherwise can’t afford it just in time to spend their Mother’s Day with their families in an initiative called #FreeBlackMamas.

After lengthy debate – and sparring between chambers – Alabama lawmakers finalized a $9.3 billion regular education budget and $1.7 billion in additional spending for K-12 and higher education.

An Alabama lawmaker says he is introducing legislation he hopes will strengthen Alabama’s gun laws. A law signed in 2022 made the state’s concealed carry law less stringent. Currently, anyone over 19 years old can carry a concealed handgun without a permit, background check or training.

The proposed legislation comes as Alabama has already sparked contention over an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) law that prohibits public schools and universities from maintaining or funding DEI programs, and a top court ruling that fertilized embryos are children, which effectively shuttered in-vitro fertilization in the state until lawmakers passed a bill protecting the procedure.

Alabama lawmakers are advancing legislation that would strictly define who is considered female and male based on their reproductive systems. Opponents said the move could erode the rights of transgender and intersex people in the state.