In March 2024, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB 1, a sweeping new voter suppression law that targets, restricts and severely punishes civic engagement efforts to encourage voting and enable access to the ballot box.
The following month, a coalition of civil rights, voting rights and disability rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the law, naming as defendants the Alabama attorney general, the secretary of state and the state’s 42 district attorneys.
SB 1 is among the most extreme laws of its kind ever enacted and was the latest development in Alabama’s long history of restricting the political engagement of Black voters and other marginalized communities.
Among other provisions, it would criminalize most forms of helping voters apply for absentee ballots, with felony penalties of up to 20 years in prison. The law’s restrictions harm voters who need assistance with their absentee ballot applications — particularly Black voters, elderly voters, incarcerated voters, voters with disabilities and low-literacy voters — as well as nonpartisan civic engagement groups, including churches, that work to help Alabamians participate in the political process.
The lawsuit contends that SB 1 violates the First and 14th amendments, the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. It was filed on behalf of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, Greater Birmingham Ministries, the League of Women Voters of Alabama and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program.
Following a July 2024 hearing, the SPLC won a preliminary injunction, preserving the rights of blind, disabled and low-literacy Alabama voters to receive assistance with absentee voting application forms. The case will be heard on appeal in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
