Living with Supreme Court damage

On the assumption that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed today by the United States Senate to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, the country is now confronted with the damage that the confirmation process has done to the Supreme Court.

Among other things, there is on the record that more than 1,000 law school professors signed a letter calling for the United States Senate not to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. See Newsweek article
MORE THAN 1,000 LAW PROFESSORS SIGN LETTER CALLING ON SENATE NOT TO CONFIRM KAVANAUGH

The full text of the letter can be found here. Two particular statements from the letter are:

. . .Judge Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.
 . . . . .
But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.

This law professors' letter sits in the middle of a media barrage of the past week opposing Judge Kavanaugh and slamming him with numerous reasons why he should not sit on the Supreme Court.

This creates a significant problem for the country in how the United States Supreme Court is undermined in the eyes of the people.

This damage to the Supreme Court could last for years, and it is unclear what, if anything, the country can do to mitigate the damage.

I will offer exploring possible ways for mitigating the damage.

First, Law profs and undoing Supreme Court damage.

[N.B. I am currently shadow banned by Twitter (see Shadow banned by Twitter) and will be using Facebook messaging and email to communicate on this subject.]

Twitter shadow ban follow up

[Update 5/4/19  This week it was reported Facebook banned a number of far-right commentators, including Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos, as well as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, for violating Facebook's policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.” Yesterday, Trump tweeted about Conservative thinkers like James Woods being banned from Twitter, Paul Watson being banned from Facebook, and Diamond and Silk being treated horribly by Facebook.

Twitter shadow banned me for about a day earlier this week, and Twitter shadow banned me for about two days a couple of weeks ago.

As with earlier shadow banning I have experienced from Twitter, Twitter did not notify me these two recent times that I had been shadow banned. Also, I have been unable to find out from Twitter exactly what I did wrong in my tweeting that got me shadow banned.]


Twitter shadow banned me last night. For more information, see Shadow banned by Twitter.

This is impairing  my efforts to quell the Kavnaugh furies. See Proposed letter for Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to sign.

I am using Facebook to complain to Alabama media about Twitter's shadow ban of me. In particular I am sending private messages to the media on Facebook, saying as follows:

Twitter has shadow banned me and I wish to complain to the media. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html

Also I am using Facebook to request the Alabama representatives in Congress to investigate shadow banning by Twitter. I am doing this by posting a public comment on their Facebook pages as follow:

Please investigate shadow banning by Twitter. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html

Further, I used Facebook to post public comments on the Facebook pages of the #aldems Congressional candidates reading as follows:

If you get into office, please investigate shadow banning by Twitter. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html

After I posted the above public comment on the Facebook pages  of the #aldems Congressional candidates, it appears that those public comments were removed from the Facebook pages, except the public comment remains on the Facebook page of  #al01 candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. I am following up by sending the below private message on Facebook to those #aldems candidates who have removed my public comment.

It appears that my public comment on your Facebook page about Twitter shadow banning has been removed from your page. I am sending this private message to memorialize the situation. See  http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/10/twitter-shadow-ban-follow-up.html. Thank you.

I have attempted to send the above private message on Facebook to the #aldems Congressional candidates who removed my public comment on their Facebook pages. I could not send the private message to any of them and got the below error message.

The content you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.

The above message in question that did not go through to #aldems Congressional candidates who had deleted my public comment may have been because the message was too long. I sent a message again consisting of just the link http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/10/twitter-shadow-ban-follow-up.html, and it went through, except Mallory Hagan had only a "Contact" button and not a "Message" button, so she has not gotten a message on Facebook from me.

Update 10/6/18
An immediate public issue is, assuming Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed today by the United States Senate, exactly what the country is going to do about the damage that the confirmation process has done to the United States Supreme Court. See Living with Supreme Court damage.
Because Twitter's current shadow ban impairs by regular way of communicating via Twitter, I will use Facebook messaging and email to communicate and will indicate here the communicating I do.

Proposed letter for Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to sign

[As an American, the author of this blog, who has drafted the below, wishes for the below to be put before Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh for their consideration.]

DRAFT

To the United States Senate:

We the undersigned Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh are writing this letter to you related to the confirmation proceedings in the Senate concerning the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.

We wish to say to you the following:

Dr. Ford made her allegation to the Senate growing out of her sense of civic duty that she believes that sexual assault is a big societal problem, that, if a person has committed sexual assault, it is something that should be considered in whether the person should serve in a public office, and that public awareness of sexual assault should be raised in order to increase societal efforts to prevent sexual assault.

Judge Kavanaugh believes that Dr. Ford did the right thing in making her allegation to the United States Senate.

Our country, the United States of America, has been suffering under extreme polarization and division that is growing worse.

Dr. Ford's allegation against Judge Kavanaugh has significantly contributed to increasing the polarization and division.

Dr. Ford's allegation has resulted in enormous personal pain and fear for Dr. Ford and her family and for Judge Kavanaugh and his family, which personal pain and fear will last for their lifetimes.

Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh and their families bear no ill will towards one another.

Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh believe in the human capacity for growth, transformation and redemption.

Dr. Ford believes Judge Kavanaugh is a good person, as good a person as Dr. Ford thinks she will ever know. Dr. Ford believes that Judge Kavanaugh, as a judge, has been fair to all women and other persons who have appeared before him, and Dr. Ford has no doubt that Judge Kavanaugh will in the future be fair to all women and other persons who appear before him.

Dr. Ford, as a layperson, does not believe that the allegation she has made against Judge Kavenaugh disqualifies him from serving on the United States Supreme Court.

Dr. Ford believes that  the reasons of civic duty that led her to make the allegation to the Senate have been fulfilled at this time.

Dr. Ford believes that withdrawing the allegation at this time will contribute positively to reducing the polarization and division in the United States, and that continuing with the allegation will further increase polarization and division in the United States

Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh believe that the big societal problem of sexual assault needs to be dealt with at many levels and on many fronts in the United States. These include law enforcement and other authorities being receptive to and responsive to charges of sexual assault; continued development of reporting and processing (including standards for due process) of sexual assault charges in schools, corporations and other institutions; educational programs teaching that sexual assault is wrong and how to prevent it; scientific research about how to reduce sexual assault, and increasing public awareness of the societal sexual assault problem by means of advertising programs and by informal means such as conversations within families.

Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh believe that the allegation that was made to the Senate will give more impetus to the foregoing ways that the United States is trying to reduce sexual assault.

While the allegation Dr. Ford made to the United States Senate has significantly increased public awareness of sexual assault and given more impetus to the ways the United States is trying to reduce sexual assault, Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh believe little additional is to be gained by continuing the allegation, and, as stated, continuing the allegation will have the very detrimental  effect of increasing polarization and division in the United States.

While the personal pain and fear resulting from the making of the allegation has been enormous for Dr. Ford and her family and for Judge Kavanaugh and his family, for both of them, that personal pain and fear are mitigated by knowledge of the good that the making of the allegation has made for the United States in its addressing of the big societal problem of sexual assault.

For the foregoing reasons, Dr. Ford withdraws the allegation against Judge Kavanaugh that she has made to the United States Senate, and both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh decline to say anything further to the United States Senate about the allegation.

Sincerely,


_______________________________         _____________________________
 Dr. Christine Blasey Ford                                   Judge Brett Kavanaugh

Dated: __________________, 2018

5/8/22

This article is worthy of a link on https://t.co/WUQm7aOpKX,
and on https://t.co/GLdLfpDyOV,
and I will put links on those two pages.#alpolitics
"At least 9 midterm candidates face misconduct or abuse allegations. Will voters care?" https://t.co/TiWyawM4wj

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) May 8, 2022

How Judge Kavanaugh should have answered question

I respectfully decline to affirm or deny the recent allegation made against me concerning my conduct while I was in high school.

Instead, I say to you the following:

By divine creation, or by evolutionary development, human beings are endowed with a powerful sex drive, which supports the propagation of the human species.

The sex drive yields much that is greatly desired in human life and society.

The sex drive is also a cause of undesirable human behaviors. These include murder, domestic abuse, adultery, preying on children, abuse of power, deceit, financial exploitation, torture, blackmail, vengeful or attention seeking retaliation, infliction of emotional pain, and psychologically violent hatred.

Both the good and the bad of the human sex drive have gone on throughout history.

Society devotes efforts trying to prevent undesirable behaviors that the human sex drive causes.

Currently, we are living through the Me Too movement that is unsettling relations between the sexes in business, government, and other organizations. Me Too is imposing new punishments on behaviors that society is now seeking to prevent.

Me Too is an ongoing phenomenon. It is unknown currently exactly what changes in the relations between the sexes will be brought about, what punishments will be imposed to achieve the changes, and what due process will be provided in imposing punishments.

Me Too is happening in the midst of a revolutionary new world of the Internet, social media, technology, and public attitudes, which are assaulting people's ability to keep anything private in their lives.

There is no downplaying how Me Too is affecting important matters of equality between the sexes, the use and seeking of power by the sexes, how children will be raised, the personal and economic impact of punishments to change sex behaviors, privacy, due process, fairness, and proportionality.

This revolutionary new Internet and technology driven world is exposing to public view not just activity in the sex domain, but also other aspects of people's lives that have been kept private or hidden in the past.

Our society is only beginning to come to grips with the ramifications of this new world's assault on privacy and secrets. All persons are touched by this and may be affected in adverse ways. Many will have views about the way things should be, and will try to influence what shall happen in the privacy destroying aspects of the new revolutionary world of the Internet and social media.

Consider the current controversy about how sexual assault allegations are handled on college campuses. Students against whom sexual assault allegations are at risk of being branded with that for the rest of their lives, such as in seeking employment. Society is confronted with having to decide whether such branding is acceptable, and if that is viewed as unacceptable, society needs to find a way to limit or prevent such branding.

At the moment, the Trump administration, presumably with significant support of some people, is endeavoring to change how sexual assault allegations are handled on campuses to provide more due process for the accused.

The new flyspecking of human conduct that is possible in the revolutionary new world of the Internet, and its associated "see all, hear all, record all" technology, can take "branding" in many directions.

Take acts of dishonesty and fraud. The United States could create a mammoth, publicly accessible data base in which acts of fraud, or allegations of fraud, may be entered on a person's name, which may be accessed, for example, by prospective employers in hiring a person or not.

Other forms of branding may come about. Violent outbursts of people could be reported by observers and entered into a public data base for searching, such as by employers.

Let me return to the human sex drive and Me Too.

The cases of Les Moonves, Jeff Fager and others in business and other organizations during the past year are exhibits of conduct that the sex drive causes and that society currently thinks must be punished and prevented. Besides the personal punishment of the individual involved, businesses and other organization are being deprived of valuable services that the individual provided. In meting out the punishments, society is struggling with defining exactly what behaviors should be changed and what should be proper due process in the imposition of the punishments.

All the types and the quantum of behavior of people that their sex drive causes and that may be caught up by Me Too as being necessary of being punished and prevented will take years to determine.

People are aware of their sex drive, and what it causes or may cause them to do, such as adultery, paying for sex, and taking advantage of situations to obtain sex. People are learning of new costs that may be imposed on them by Me Too regarding conduct that results from their sex drive.

I am a male.  I was and am endowed with a male sex drive, which has been with me during my life. I have learned about the male sex drive, and the behavior it causes or may cause, both from my own person and from being an observer of other males.

Females know best about the female sex drive, the behaviors that it causes, and the uses that females make of sex.

The above that I have discussed has far reaching implications for the relations between the sexes and for other realms of people's lives, and these are much more important to the country than the matter of who is going to fill the immediate vacancy on the United States Supreme Court.

Having talked about the human sex drive, I believe it is fair game also to talk about power lust, undesirable behaviors that are caused by power lust, and how to reduce the undesirable behaviors, including by invading areas that have been previously been kept private and hidden from public view. For example, body cameras might be placed on lawmakers and their staffs to record everything that goes on in their carrying out the public's business.

We are all in uncertain territory about what is going to in fact play out and how things will be in future years.

We all may have some say in what plays out.

Lawmakers may pass laws that affect the matter.

There will be much societal discussion and debate, out of which consensus may arise about what behaviors caused by the sex drive must be prevented, including taking into account the deprivation to society of valuable services, and about what is due process in the imposition of punishments.

People will have ways to speak and sometimes ways to act in order that they may try to influence how the new revolutionary world is shaped. Not all will agree with what another person says or does.

I am entitled to speak and have an opportunity here to act as may affect how the new revolutionary world is shaped.

This I choose to do by taking the position that I will not affirm or deny the allegation that has been made against me of conduct while I was in high school, and that instead I say the above to you..

Members of the Senate Judiciary and members of the United States Senate may choose to take into account, or to disregard, this stand of mine, all as they see fit.

I further aver that I think members of the Judiciary Committee and members of the United States Senate should not be adversely affected in their voting decision regarding me by the fact that I decline to affirm or deny the allegation in question and that I instead choose to say what I have said above.

I will accept whatever the outcome that the Judiciary Committee and the United States Senate decide for me.

Thank you.

5/8/22

This article is worthy of a link on https://t.co/WUQm7aOpKX,
and on https://t.co/GLdLfpDyOV,
and I will put links on those two pages.#alpolitics
"At least 9 midterm candidates face misconduct or abuse allegations. Will voters care?" https://t.co/TiWyawM4wj

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) May 8, 2022

Shadow banned by Twitter

I have been shadow banned by Twitter.

I have determined the shadow banning by comparing the tweets I see under the #alpolitics hashtag when I am logged into my @RobShattuckAL06 Twitter account, with the tweets I see under the #alpolitics hashtag when I am logged into a different Twitter account.

When I am logged into my @RobShattuckAL06 Twitter account, I see under the #alpolitics hashtag my tweets I have sent using that hashtag. When I am logged into the different Twitter account, I don't see under the #alpolitics hashtag my tweets that I have sent using the #alpolitics hashtag.

The foregoing hashtag shadow banning of me being done by Twitter extends to at least one other hashtag and may extend to other hashtags I use on Twitter.

All of my tweets can be seen in my Tweets & replies.

If you look at my tweets in my Tweets & replies, I don't think you will find anything that is objectionable, except I have been doing a lot of tweeting on #alpolitics, and there are a lot of long threads and links to prior tweets and threads of mine.

I understand that, because a lot of tweeters may do various things in "excessive" ways in their tweeting, Twitter needs to control such "excessiveness."

If Twitter is going to have controls over "excessiveness," users need to be able to know when they are doing something "excessively" on Twitter and for "excessiveness" to be subject to some measure that allows users to reduce whatever they are doing "excessively" so that it is no longer "excessive."

One way of doing this, which Twitter is doing, is to limit the number of tweets that a user can send during a specified period of time. Currently the limit is 2400 tweets per day. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-limits.

If that limit is exceeded, I believe the sanction Twitter uses is to not allow the user to send tweets for awhile, in order to bring the user back under the limitation, and the user is aware if the user tries to send a tweet and cannot.

I have not exceeded the 2400 tweets per day limit.

Under Twitter's rules and policies, the only thing I see that seems relevant to my case is spamming guidelines and specifically regarding "multiple duplicate updates on one account." Possibly my tweets that included links to prior tweets and threads of mine violate the foregoing.

Threads allow for expressing things that cannot be done in a single tweet. Threads also allow for tacking on new things that are relevant to a subject that is discussed in the thread. This can occur over weeks and threads could become very long. Alternatively, instead of increasing the length of a single thread, tacking on new relevant things over longer periods of time can be done by starting a new thread in which the first tweet in the new thread gives a link to the previous thread.

I have the further rationale that I am endeavoring to promote two sided discussions on #alpolitics. Participants on  #alpolitics have been resistant to engaging in two sided discussions. I have been using links to prior tweets and prior threads as a reminder to the effect of "this has been brought up before here, and participants were unresponsive and two sided discussion did not take place back then."

The approach of the numerical limitations on numbers of tweets and the sanction of temporarily preventing tweeting may not be practical as regards "multiple duplicate updates on one account."

Unlike the sanction of not being able to send tweets temporarily (which the user is aware of if the user tries to send a tweet), the user is deceived when there is hashtag shadow banning because the user sees the user's tweets when the user looks on the hashtag, but other users are not seeing the user's tweets when the other users are looking on the hashtag. This deceiving of the user by Twitter seems highly objectionable.

In my case, I have become aware of the hashtag shadow banning, so I know it is happening, but I don't know exactly what I need to do to avoid shadow banning and to get my shadow banning lifted. I can only contact @TwitterSupport and ask what I can do to get my shadow banning lifted.

@TwitterSupport Twitter has shadow banned me. Can you please tell me how I can modify my tweeting to have the shadow ban lifted? Thank you. https://t.co/HEwMtIeHSb #alpolitics

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) August 31, 2018

[Update 10/4/18: It appears that Twitter has shadow banned me again. My first experience of Twitter shadow banning me was on or about August 31st (when I originally wrote this blog entry). As described below in this blog entry, Twitter did not notify me of the imposition of the shadow ban (which I discovered on my own), Twitter Support never tweeted me back after I sent the tweet set out at the end of this blog entry, and Twitter did not notify me when it lifted the shadow ban, which Twitter did a couple of days after the ban was imposed. The current shadow ban is impairing my efforts to quell the Kavnaugh furies. See Proposed letter for Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to sign. For follow up of what I am doing about current shadow ban, see Twitter shadow ban follow up.]


[Update 10/7/18: With no sense of when Twitter will lift shadow ban, I am turning to Facebook to communicate and am trying to add apt Facebook friends.]

Will healthcare bankrupt U.S.?

[HEAL Alabama (Healthy Eating, Active Living) is a nonprofit, 501 (c) (3) organization based in Alabama whose mission is to measurably improve children’s health and reverse the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.]

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 3:56 PM
Subject: Will healthcare bankrupt the United States?
To: healmystate@gmail.com

Dear H.E.A.L.,

For the past two years, our country has lived with one political side hellbent to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, the other political side trying to stand athwart that, and Trump and the Republicans doing piecemeal dismantling of Obamacare.

This leaves the healthcare system a mess in 2018, with no sign that our broken, polarized Congress has any capacity to do its job for the American people regarding healthcare.

Further, this is in the context of a looming national healthcare crisis growing out of, among other things, obesity, diabetes and the increased number of more old people who are living longer.

The country's current financial duress in the healthcare domain is only going to grow much greater in the coming years.

How well Congress and the Federal government, and how well state legislatures and state governments, will be able to get their acts together and manage the ticking healthcare time bomb is uncertain. There is reason for a lack of confidence.

I am not in any position of authority and I have no healthcare policy role, public or private.

Nonetheless, in connection with the 2017 special Senate election in Alabama, I undertook to try to engage the candidates, academics, and representatives from the healthcare industry, etc., to have public discussion of their views about what should be done regarding health care reform. You may learn more about what I tried to do at http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/06/health-care-symposium.html.

This effort I made in 2017 went nowhere.

H.E.A.L. is trying to make a significant, long range contribution on the healthcare front in Alabama. The health benefits and the healthcare costs savings to be achieved from H.E.A.L.'s programs require sustained active participation by parents, children, teachers and others, and are being only very slowly realized.

It is probably hard to get elected government officials to incorporate, in their campaign platforms and in their policies, a strong call on the people that the people need to alter their ways and habits that affect their health. If a politician harks too much on that, the voters may not vote for him or her, and hence the politicians and elected officials may not do strongly worded messaging to the people about what they need to do about their health, as H.E.A.L. would like to see done.

My reason for this email to H.E.A.L. is that I wish to resurrect in 2018 the effort I made in 2017 to engage the candidates, academics, and representatives from the healthcare industry, etc., to have public discussion of their views about what should be done regarding health care reform.

I see from H.E.A.L.'s listings of staff, Board, advisors, partners and sponsors that H.E.A.L. has many contacts in Alabama government, universities and industry related to healthcare. While it may be wishful thinking, these contacts might be very supportive of the healthcare symposium idea I tried to get going in 2017 and be helpful in getting a healthcare symposium sponsored and organized this year.

If this is so, and names can be provided to me of persons willing to help out, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you for whatever help you can provide me on this.

Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck

AG candidates' issues

Below are the "issues" statements or other material from AG candidates' websites.

Steve Marshall

Opioid crisis
Forging a path forward to address the opioid epidemic in Alabama has been a hallmark of my first year in office. Last summer, Governor Kay Ivey appointed me as co-chair of her Alabama Opioid Overdose & Addiction Council. After six months of in-depth research and discussion by the Council, we reported our recommendations to Governor Ivey. Now, we are getting to work on the implementation of those recommendations.
As the Council’s work highlights, a multi-faceted problem requires creative and diverse solutions. The partnership we have established between law enforcement, mental health, and public health is foundational, but this alliance must be expanded to include both the faith and education communities.
Through my position as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of this state, it is my unique responsibility to ensure we are effectively dealing with the trafficking of both pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs. We are ramping up our ability to combat this trafficking through increased coordination and data-sharing with federal partners and providing new resources to our local partners through our new cybercrime lab. Because much of the trafficking of the most dangerous opioids--fentanyl and Carfentanil--occur online, our new lab is a critical tool in this fight.

Immigration
Illegal immigration is a growing problem for our state. It is the government’s first responsibility to enforce the law and ensure the safety of our citizens. Stopping the flow of illegal immigrants through our borders is the first step in achieving that goal. I am also committed to the prosecution of illegal immigrants who commit crimes in Alabama.

In my first year in office, I have taken these steps to combat illegal immigration:

1. Fought for President Trump’s travel ban designed to protect all Americans from the influx of immigrants from countries that pose a security risk to the U.S.
2. Joined President Trump’s effort to put an end to sanctuary cities
3. Demanded an end to Obama’s executive amnesty and insisted that the rule of law be upheld.

Federal Overreach

Our Founders knew that an out-of-control federal government would be the enemy of freedom. That’s why the Constitution gives “few and defined” powers to the federal government and reserves for the States “all the objects which...concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people…” This balance of power, federalism, was greatly disrupted during the Obama Administration but with a new Administration in place, we have an opportunity to reclaim our state sovereignty.
Alabama has been uniquely affected by federal overreach on issues affecting private property. I am currently leading a battle in the U.S. Supreme Court against a federal regulation that would give the government power to use any private land that the federal government deemed necessary to protect an endangered species. In the process of this lawsuit, we have also worked successfully with the Trump Administration to get these burdensome rules rolled back.
I agree with the late Justice Scalia, “it won’t work if we don’t believe in federalism.”

Violent Crime

Violent crime in Alabama is at a 20-year high. In fact, data shows us that a violent crime is committed every 21 minutes across our state. That’s why I launched my “Initiative on Violent Crime” with the slogan “Reclaim. Restore. Revive.” I am determined to reclaim our neighborhoods from the scourge of violent crime, restore the rule of law, and ultimately, see these communities revived.
We are accomplishing these goals through targeting our worst-hit areas, establishing strategic partnerships with federal, state, and local law enforcement, renewing investments in crime-fighting resources and increasing training opportunities for those on the front lines.
We are also listening to the needs of victims of violent crime. As a result, we advocated for and secured passage of the Fair Justice Act to ensure that capital murderers are limited in their ability to file endless frivolous appeals that cause families to relive their horror again and again, while losing faith in the justice system.
We are having great success and are dedicated to winning this fight. With our friend and partner, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, at the helm of our federal crime-fighting agencies and a career prosecutor leading the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, criminals should be on notice. We will not tolerate this menace to our citizens.

Human Trafficking

Not only is human trafficking a global tragedy, it is heartbreakingly present even in our own state of Alabama. It is hard for us to fathom that such a vile practice as slavery exists in our midst. Traffickers target those who are most vulnerable, using threats and torture to wear their victims down and render them powerless to seek help. I stand ready to prosecute these cases and see this horrible crime punished. I am also fighting to ensure that those in law enforcement have the training and resources that they need to deal with these horrific crimes. Together we can save victims, one at a time, and reduce the terrible suffering caused by trafficking.

2nd Amendment

I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and to vigilantly protect the rights of the people, including the Second Amendment. Our Second Amendment rights are constantly under siege from the liberals and their footholds in federal agencies. I have demonstrated my commitment to protect the rights of gun owners in federal and state courts and to push back on unnecessary restrictions on gun manufacturers. I will continue to be a champion of the Second Amendment on behalf of all Alabamians.

Ethics

Cracking down on government corruption is vital to public confidence and the welfare of our our state. I have worked to bring more transparency to government by building on the Alabama Ethics Act. We need honest people to serve and we must close loopholes that would allow for corrupt individuals to profit from their government service. It is my highest priority to ensure that those who serve the people of Alabama do so with the utmost integrity.

Standing up for Life

We must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves--we must fight for the unborn. I have a career-long record of fighting for life in the courts and in the legislature. One of the biggest victories in my professional career has been drafting and advocating for the Brody Act—a law that makes it possible to prosecute offenders for two crimes if they kill or injure an unborn child during an attack on the unborn child’s mother. After that law passed, I became the first prosecutor to secure a death sentence (for a man who had murdered his pregnant wife) under the Brody Act. Amazingly, when this landmark case was on appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court, I had the privilege of defending that conviction in my role as Attorney General.
I have also fought for and won First Amendment protections for pro-life speech, defended Alabama’s law on parental consent for abortions, supported other states’ laws that would prohibit late-term and discriminatory abortions and battled the ACLU to ban the gruesome practice of dismemberment abortions.


Alice Martin
2nd Amendment

I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms. I’ll fight against any state or federal legislation that seeks to undo or preempt Alabama’s open and concealed-carry laws.
As a federal prosecutor my office prosecuted hundreds of federal firearm violations with ATF and local law enforcement. This reduced violent crime, which is now on the rise. I’ll work to enforce current laws – not add new restrictions to law abiding Alabamians – to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists, criminals and the mentally ill.
As a lifelong gun owner, hunter and NRA member, I’ll fight any move by liberal Democrats and Republicans to limit our rights to own a gun and defend our families.

Corruption Ends Here

I have focused much of my 20-year career as a state and federal prosecutor on fighting corruption in government. As United States Attorney for 31 counties of north Alabama, I formed the North Alabama Public Corruption Task Force with former Alabama AG Bill Pryor and obtained 140 federal corruption convictions and was named a “Top 10 Prosecutor in the U. S.” by Corporate Fraud Reporter.
As Chief Deputy Attorney General for Alabama from 2015-2017, I worked on the prosecution team that prosecuted Speaker Mike Hubbard, as well as led the grand jury investigation into former Governor Robert Bentley. I increased resources to prosecute public corruption in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office by more than 200%. If elected to serve as your Attorney General I will continue that work to follow the facts and hold corrupt government employees and officials accountable to their oaths of office.
Corruption creates an unlevel playing field for law abiding businesses and is costly to taxpayers. I will work to clarify Alabama’s Ethics Law and hold entities accountable to the Alabama Open Records Act because sunshine is a disinfectant. Public service is not about private gain. Integrity and ethical behavior matters and no one is above the law.

Stop Illegal Immigration and Sanctuary cities

I stand with President Trump as a strong supporter of enforcing our immigration laws! The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws designed to protect our borders and our citizens. I oppose sanctuary city policies that ignore immigration laws and release criminal aliens back into a community. This liberal policy has illegally released thousands of criminals into American communities. It puts law-abiding citizens and undocumented immigrants at risk.
I will fight against any movement of a city or county in Alabama to become a sanctuary jurisdiction, and that risk your safety by becoming one.

Opioid Crisis

Fact: In 2017, 60,000 Americans died from drug overdoses and two-thirds were linked to opioids. Two deaths a day occur in Alabama due to an overdose. Alabama has the highest number of opioid prescriptions per person than any other state!
Almost everyone in Alabama knows someone whose family has been impacted by opioid addiction or an overdose. As a prosecutor and nurse I know we cannot prosecute our way out of this crisis. It will require a multi-discipline approach of prevention through education, medication-assisted treatment, and law enforcement.
Research shows that 40% of people who take opioids for more than 30 days become addicted. I’m proud to have successfully advocated for mandatory controlled substance prescribing education for physicians starting January 1, 2018, and mandatory checks that trigger  the Alabama Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database in order to combat doctor shopping and drug diversion.
If we do not make a positive impact now, we can expect an increase in ‘pills to needles’ abuse. Heroin addiction will continue to rise as well because the DEA links 80% of heroin addiction to prescription drug abuse. Fentanyl deaths will continue to rise. There were 247 drug overdoses in Jefferson County, Alabama alone in 2016, an increase of 12% over 2015. The trend in this public health issue is alarming and touches people of all ages, but especially people in their 30-50s, which yields a lot of ‘collateral damage’ with the number of children impacted.

Pro- Life

I oppose abortion. Life begins at conception and should be protected. I am committed to protecting the rights of unborn children except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother.
As a mother of three daughters and a nurse, I care about the health of the unborn baby and the mother. I support women’s safety through education and funding of community health centers, so they have real choices and can avoid unwanted pregnancies.
As Attorney General I would support and defend the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks. I will fight liberal attempts to allow abortion on demand and fight to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding of abortion.

Federalist – States’ Rights

As Attorney General, I will fight to protect our States’ rights, under the Tenth Amendment from federal government overreach. This includes fighting for our religious liberties that have been under constant attack from liberals and out –of- state groups. We cannot allow big government policies and the liberal agenda to supersede the laws that Alabama lawmakers have put in place and which reflect our values.
It is the responsibility of the state to enforce the Constitution to manage the federal government. While serving as Alabama’ Chief Deputy Attorney General in 2016, we fought and won an injunction against Obama’s transgender bathroom mandate that would have required Alabama schools to allow students access to restrooms and locker rooms based on their gender “identity” rather than their sex, or we would have lost federal funding. We must push back against these liberal agenda items that seek to destroy the moral fiber of our country.

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests”.
-Patrick Henry

Stop Human Trafficking

Fact: Human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal activity in the world and the superhighways – I-20 and I-65 – run through Alabama making it a target rich environment for this form of modern day slavery.
I have prosecuted sex trafficking cases and I know it is happening to children and adults here in Alabama. In the past 10 years, over 377 victims have been identified where the use of force, fraud or coercion to get labor or commercial sex act has occurred.

I will work with state, local and federal law enforcement officials to provide training and prosecution to combat human trafficking. I will work to form an alliance with schools and private businesses to increase awareness of the issue and to prevent and detect trafficking along our interstate highway corridors.


Chris Christie
Priorities

As Attorney General, Chris will work to protect the people of Alabama. Chris defended our most vulnerable seniors when the federal government sued a hospice provider because patients weren’t dying fast enough according to a federal “expert.”
Chris will increase consumer protection and take on big corporations that take advantage of Alabamians. When insider deals ripped off Alabama state employees’ supplemental retirement funds, Chris filed a case that brought justice and full compensation to the employees in the retirement plan.
Chris will also be a leader on behalf of victims’ rights. As an attorney, he’s represented and won for victims of fraud. For example, Chris helped an elderly, indigent woman recover the money stolen by a phony contractor who she had paid to fix her roof. Likewise, Chris will stand up for the victims of payday lenders and work with the legislature to put a stop to predatory lending practices in Alabama.

Values
Chris is committed to protecting and cultivating our next generation. Chris knows every child is an investment and he will fight to support and protect our youth, making the internet safer for children and teens by protecting them from predators.


Chess Bedsole
Republican lawyer and former criminal court judge, Chess Bedsole spent the last couple of years working with President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, first to secure the White House and then serving as senior counsel to the incoming Department of Justice. During this time, Chess worked to rewrite Obama executive orders and implement the policies of Trump and Sessions. His focus included securing the border, taking unnecessary regulations off the backs of our military, removing barriers to the 2nd amendment freedoms of gun owners and protecting the right to life.
A former criminal court judge in North Alabama, Chess has a record of swift justice. He supported law enforcement efforts to fight drug sales and worked with local charities and churches to help victims of domestic violence. He also cut costs to taxpayers by requiring work or school of young, able-bodied, nonviolent offenders.

Chess is running for Attorney General to aggressively lower violent crime in our cities, cut illegal drug sales in the state, empower our law enforcement community with more resources and less red tape and to restore integrity to the office


Troy King


Joseph Siegelman
I'm here for the people of Alabama because I'm one of you, and my campaign is about bringing the Office of the Attorney General, and all of our government, back home to the people of this State where it belongs..