Chris England is a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, serving the Tuscaloosa area. He is the former chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, and was the first Black chairman of either major political party in Alabama. He is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Alabama School of Law and comes from a family that is distinguished by its public service. His father served as a state Supreme Court Justice and circuit judge. His brother is a federal magistrate judge in the Northern District of Alabama.
I am going to try to navigate this delicate issue because race is involved. Please read it carefully without assumption.
Democracy should seek to give all a voice. Where impractical it should seek to give as many as possible that voice.
The GOP knows it has a minority agenda. To have power they not only gerrymander, but purge voting rolls, make public arrests of token "violaters" (In FL this means setting them up), disenfranchise, move polling stations that are far fewer and undermanned or use dirty tricks to send voters to non-existent locations.
The problem is that we don't have an all encompassing pro-democracy movement but right now a proxy battle over the VRA. Democracy requires that we fight any and all battles and so we support our brothers and sisters in AL. But the AL case is part of a bigger, many-faceted war where millions don't have the VRA to help.
The larger battle still exists and I hate thinking that justice obtained in one location might take our attention away from the hydra of the general war on democracy..
Across America our Hispanic fellow citizens suffer equally offensive treatment in states like Texas. In places like Ohio, NC, FL and elsewhere Democrats of all stripes have voices and votes that have been silenced.
So let's kick butt AL, but not lose sight that we are fighting a party of many sins, including oligarchy and authoritarianism. It is just the beginning. We need champions to articulate the bigger battle as well until all Americans live in a land where one person, one vote is invioable.
So go get them Alabama! Send donations. But let's challenge electoral corruption everywhere. Where heroes like DA Willis carry on the fight.
I take my fury to emails and phone calls to my local representatives, and ask them to speak publically regarding the national GOP attempt to degrade our democratic republic. I write or call them ALL in each month. So can you! PS, yes they get sick of me, but hey, they have to take and record each message I leave for that representative. I ask them to read it back. IT'S MY RIGHT.
I have written my district city council representative, Valerie Abbott, three times that I can recall ,and not received so much as a return form letter.
Ohioan here. OHSC ruled that our maps were illegal yet Mike DeWine and his band of power hungry people defied their ruling. 🤔 After defeating issue 1 hopefully we enshrine reproductive health care into our constitution. I do believe that we will bring an amendment for independent districting commission to draw the maps. Both sides have gerrymandered in the past. It’s time to stop the practice and get back to a balanced government.
I heard on my NPR station this morning that such a movement for an independent election commission has already begun here in Ohio. Let's build on the success of the defeat of their horrible plan to ignore the will of the people!
Thank you Chris and Joyce. I feel like Alabama has, so far, managed to re-create the legislative atmosphere that prevailed in lhe post-reconstruction late 1800s. I suspect that Tommy Tuberville is cheering on the GOP state legislature at any private fund-raiser he attends -----> but I'd love to be told I was wrong. Let's hope the districts get fairly re-drawn before the 2024 elections.
Aug 14, 2023·edited Aug 14, 2023Liked by Joyce Vance
My daughter is serving jury duty today, which made me want to point out something we perhaps overlook in gerrymandering cases.
Lists of voters are used as a source (along with tax rolls, public assistance, motor vehicle etc.) for creating jury pools from which people are summoned for jury service. This pool is meant to be diverse economically and socially, but we also have to be aware that it should also reflect the racial and ethnic demographics of the people who live in a given district. Seeing mostly white jurors sitting on a case where 50% of that county is Black should make you wonder.
Politicians like Chris restore my faith. There really are people in office for the right reasons, trying to help their communities. It was my pleasure to get to introduce y'all!
I don't understand why the Right thinks court orders are optional. I saw a clip where someone at the Iowa State Fair shouted to Trump "Are you going to comply with the Court's Order" and Trump responded (I'm paraphrasing) "Well, we need to look at the order and then I'll decide what I'm going to do." I'm gobsmacked. As a practicing lawyer for over 35 years, its rare to see such utter disregard for court holdings.
Really nice to see what Chris had to say on this important morning. He’s one of the bright lights in the state and a pillar of good sense and judgment in the Legislature.
Just....breathtaking. I come from a largely southern family. Except for myself, all my siblings are from the South. I grew up mostly in the south, only to escape after graduating from college. Now as a retired adult, I am back. I know a thing or two about the south and its people. Racism, although not as overt as it once was, is to say the very least still around in the south - more so than most other regions of the country. That is a no-duh. That statement is also a generalization - not to be applied to every individual, for I know people who do their best to try to do right. What we see here with the Alabama legislature is overt racism. Out in the open, with the perpetrators daring the government to take them on. It is straight out of the days of Jim Crow. And unapologetically. Breathtaking. It is a deliberate attempt to seize back lost territory gradually taken over decades by a more "woke" society, and move us back towards a more white supremacist state of being. What a giant boneheaded mistake the SCOTUS made when deciding on Shelby County vs Holder. It let the foxes into the hen houses. This must be stamped out in its entirety. Eradicated. Excised. We have no time, as a country that purports to be exceptional, for this vile movement to continue to rear its ugly head legally year after year.
“The congressional map created two districts that the Republicans argue create an opportunity for Black Alabamians to elect a candidate of their choosing.” Imagine that - being able to elect the candidate you want!
Joyce, legalize is difficult for non-lawyers. I consider myself reasonably intelligent but ABHOR reading in acronyms as I believe arose along with the internet. I’d really like to study this again with “BVAP’ spelled out please. Can you or another respondent enlighten this old lady? From AL, this is of interest to me.
I am going to try to navigate this delicate issue because race is involved. Please read it carefully without assumption.
Democracy should seek to give all a voice. Where impractical it should seek to give as many as possible that voice.
The GOP knows it has a minority agenda. To have power they not only gerrymander, but purge voting rolls, make public arrests of token "violaters" (In FL this means setting them up), disenfranchise, move polling stations that are far fewer and undermanned or use dirty tricks to send voters to non-existent locations.
The problem is that we don't have an all encompassing pro-democracy movement but right now a proxy battle over the VRA. Democracy requires that we fight any and all battles and so we support our brothers and sisters in AL. But the AL case is part of a bigger, many-faceted war where millions don't have the VRA to help.
The larger battle still exists and I hate thinking that justice obtained in one location might take our attention away from the hydra of the general war on democracy..
Across America our Hispanic fellow citizens suffer equally offensive treatment in states like Texas. In places like Ohio, NC, FL and elsewhere Democrats of all stripes have voices and votes that have been silenced.
So let's kick butt AL, but not lose sight that we are fighting a party of many sins, including oligarchy and authoritarianism. It is just the beginning. We need champions to articulate the bigger battle as well until all Americans live in a land where one person, one vote is invioable.
So go get them Alabama! Send donations. But let's challenge electoral corruption everywhere. Where heroes like DA Willis carry on the fight.
Thank you. This is very clear and easy to understand. That fact that this is happening simply infuriates me.
I take my fury to emails and phone calls to my local representatives, and ask them to speak publically regarding the national GOP attempt to degrade our democratic republic. I write or call them ALL in each month. So can you! PS, yes they get sick of me, but hey, they have to take and record each message I leave for that representative. I ask them to read it back. IT'S MY RIGHT.
Good move Mimi.
I have written my district city council representative, Valerie Abbott, three times that I can recall ,and not received so much as a return form letter.
Ohioan here. OHSC ruled that our maps were illegal yet Mike DeWine and his band of power hungry people defied their ruling. 🤔 After defeating issue 1 hopefully we enshrine reproductive health care into our constitution. I do believe that we will bring an amendment for independent districting commission to draw the maps. Both sides have gerrymandered in the past. It’s time to stop the practice and get back to a balanced government.
I heard on my NPR station this morning that such a movement for an independent election commission has already begun here in Ohio. Let's build on the success of the defeat of their horrible plan to ignore the will of the people!
Thank you Chris and Joyce. I feel like Alabama has, so far, managed to re-create the legislative atmosphere that prevailed in lhe post-reconstruction late 1800s. I suspect that Tommy Tuberville is cheering on the GOP state legislature at any private fund-raiser he attends -----> but I'd love to be told I was wrong. Let's hope the districts get fairly re-drawn before the 2024 elections.
What can we do about Tuberville? He seems unassailable
Tuberville Traitor is not a resident of the state ! He is a resident of Floriduh! So how did he get the job of Governor???
He's not governor; he's a senator.
My daughter is serving jury duty today, which made me want to point out something we perhaps overlook in gerrymandering cases.
Lists of voters are used as a source (along with tax rolls, public assistance, motor vehicle etc.) for creating jury pools from which people are summoned for jury service. This pool is meant to be diverse economically and socially, but we also have to be aware that it should also reflect the racial and ethnic demographics of the people who live in a given district. Seeing mostly white jurors sitting on a case where 50% of that county is Black should make you wonder.
Like Kyle Rittenhouse joke of a trial !!!
Are all trials in America now a joke?
Great article and introduction to Chris England for those of us not in the legal profession. Thank you, and Keep fighting the good fight!
Politicians like Chris restore my faith. There really are people in office for the right reasons, trying to help their communities. It was my pleasure to get to introduce y'all!
Thanks for this enlightening session. Very important. Im so glad it’s available to all!!!
PS i’d vote for the same availability for the last 5Qs on Trump’s 1st-A “defense.” Have seen so little written from that “no” perspective.
Having read your regular post today on criminal procedure, Im wondering if Govt will file a motion to head off use of that defense.
Thanks for everything. My best to the chickens!!
If I had to guess, I'd say we'll see a defense motion to dismiss the indictment because of the 1A, and the issue will get litigated from there.
"If we want Alabama to stop being the place where the dead continue to bury the living, we must continue to fight back."
This seems very much to be the era in which we find ourselves. FIGHT!
I don't understand why the Right thinks court orders are optional. I saw a clip where someone at the Iowa State Fair shouted to Trump "Are you going to comply with the Court's Order" and Trump responded (I'm paraphrasing) "Well, we need to look at the order and then I'll decide what I'm going to do." I'm gobsmacked. As a practicing lawyer for over 35 years, its rare to see such utter disregard for court holdings.
And then, the judge will decide what she is going to do. He can be as glib as he wants. She’s not for hire.
Yeah; he's FA and now he's going to FO... She's not going to roll over and let him continue his behavior.
And yet the defendant has been doing just that for years. Spitting in the face of Lady Justice has been his pastime.
Really nice to see what Chris had to say on this important morning. He’s one of the bright lights in the state and a pillar of good sense and judgment in the Legislature.
Just....breathtaking. I come from a largely southern family. Except for myself, all my siblings are from the South. I grew up mostly in the south, only to escape after graduating from college. Now as a retired adult, I am back. I know a thing or two about the south and its people. Racism, although not as overt as it once was, is to say the very least still around in the south - more so than most other regions of the country. That is a no-duh. That statement is also a generalization - not to be applied to every individual, for I know people who do their best to try to do right. What we see here with the Alabama legislature is overt racism. Out in the open, with the perpetrators daring the government to take them on. It is straight out of the days of Jim Crow. And unapologetically. Breathtaking. It is a deliberate attempt to seize back lost territory gradually taken over decades by a more "woke" society, and move us back towards a more white supremacist state of being. What a giant boneheaded mistake the SCOTUS made when deciding on Shelby County vs Holder. It let the foxes into the hen houses. This must be stamped out in its entirety. Eradicated. Excised. We have no time, as a country that purports to be exceptional, for this vile movement to continue to rear its ugly head legally year after year.
His last paragraph and yours are inspirational. Thank you.
I am curious why specifically Kavanaugh? It sounds like they intend to bribe him.
Because in the opinion in Milligan, he suggested he might not always vote this way.
Thank you for clarifying that! He is a coward in his waffling. By putting his name out there like that, it seems like they are intimidating him too.
He has already been bribed. Revisit the disappeared debt shortly before the confirmation hearing.
I meant specifically for this returning case.
Thank you! Exactly. Wow, and audacious! Our supreme court is without credibility.
I’m sorry, Linda, didn’t mean to be dismissive. I should’ve said “indeed, they may wish to bribe him ‘again.’
“The congressional map created two districts that the Republicans argue create an opportunity for Black Alabamians to elect a candidate of their choosing.” Imagine that - being able to elect the candidate you want!
Today's school house door.
So very true
Joyce, legalize is difficult for non-lawyers. I consider myself reasonably intelligent but ABHOR reading in acronyms as I believe arose along with the internet. I’d really like to study this again with “BVAP’ spelled out please. Can you or another respondent enlighten this old lady? From AL, this is of interest to me.
I did spell it out (actually this was Chris's answer, but I spelled it out for him)--Black Voting Age Population
Thank you so much; may have been too stressed to see; friends in Lahaina I cannot help. 😢
🙏 for you and your friends.
Thank you!😘
That made me pause too! Did a little looking around and found this: Black Voting Age Population (BVAP). Hope that helps.
Thank you!😘
He spelled it out in the very next sentence.
Thank you; found it!
It's explained in the second paragraph of question #2.