On August 1, 2011, the religious leaders of the Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic churches of Alabama filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. §1983 against the governor and attorney general of Alabama, and the district attorney of Madison County, Alabama in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Northeastern Division. The plaintiffs, represented by the churches’ attorneys, sought declaratory and injunctive relief, claiming that the recently enacted H.B. 56 violated their constitutional rights. Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that enforcement of the law would prevent the churches and members of their congregations from freely practicing their religious duties to minister to “all of God’s children” without regard to immigration status. Several provisions of H.B. 56 criminalize actions such as harboring or transporting an undocumented immigrant. Plaintiffs claim that such actions are regularly undertaken by churches directly or by their congregants, and criminalizing the actions prevents the free exercise of their religious faith.

The court [Chief Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn] ordered this case and two other related cases consolidated (United States v. Arizona and Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama v. Bentley), but that order was dissolved a month later.

On August 5, 2011, plaintiffs filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction. The court eventually ruled on an Amended Motion for Preliminary Injunction in a Memorandum Opinion on September 28, 2011. In that opinion, the court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge one provision of the law, and the other challenges to separate provisions were moot because enforcement was previously preliminarily enjoined in the related case, United States v. Arizona. That case is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision on this matter will likely determine the outcome of this case. The case is ongoing as of this writing.

Elizabeth Daligga - 06/22/2012


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