Alabama Appleseed

In the Fall of 2008 Alabama Appleseed started a constitutional reform initiative. The goal of Appleseed’s Initiative is a new Alabama Constitution, or the essential elements thereof.  One of the main objectives to achieve this goal is to strategically engage Alabama’s lawyers and legal community as a catalyst to build both a substantive policy foundation and a network around the state of legal advocates for constitutional reform. A second objective is to engage Alabama’s many and varied constituencies interested in finding common cause for constitutional reform that will support the strengthening of  educational opportunity, business and economic development, a more equitable tax structure, and state and local governments that will better function and be more responsive to citizen needs.

Alabama’s 1901 Constitution must be substantially revised in order to return actual political power to the citizenry, remove serious constraints to improving education for all children, release large and small businesses from limits on more profitably running their concerns and empowering state, city and county governments to better govern with less waste of tax dollars.

Constitutional reform efforts in Alabama are not new and have recurred periodically ever since the 1901 Constitution was adopted. We have attached a brief Recent History of Constitutional Reform in Alabama. This history provides the factual context that highlights the continuing and current need for groups like Alabama Appleseed to become directly engaged in the constitutional reform effort. There is today no need more pressing in Alabama than constitutional reform.

The time is right for Alabama Appleseed to mobilize and energize the considerable talent, experience and knowledge of the legal community to take a fresh look at constitutional reform and the barriers preventing reform, and through focused research, dialogue and advocacy play a major role in shaping and advocating enactment of needed constitutional improvements. One of the few reform successes was the adoption of a new Judicial Article growing out of the work of Gov. Brewer’s commission, and strongly advocated by the legal community under the leadership of Chief Justice Heflin.  The essence of a lawyer is problem solving, and Alabama has no bigger problem than its ill-conceived, antiquated, and dysfunctional constitution.

The goal of Appleseed’s Initiative is a new Alabama Constitution that will insure more democratic representation and better government at the state and local levels. The most fundamental and compelling need in Alabama today is a new constitution with appropriate provisions for a growing and robust Alabama in the 21st Century. The project has two main objectives: to strategically engage in the first instance the legal community as a catalyst to build a substantive policy foundation for constitutional reform, and secondly to engage Alabama’s many and varied constituencies interested in finding common cause in support of strengthened educational opportunity, business and economic development, a more equitable tax structure and state and local governments that will better function and be more responsive to citizen needs.

There are three distinct, but intersecting, activities of the Project. First, we will select a broadly-representative, bi-partisan Advisory Commission to our Board. The Commission will help us to identify the principal substantive issues needed to further the success of constitutional reform, and will advise the Appleseed Board on how best to proceed to accomplish our objective.  Second, we will engage a wider range of organizations and individuals that are not involved in existing constitutional reform efforts, but whose active involvement is essential for the success of constitutional reforms.  Such key partners include local government officials, large and small business leaders, educators, farmers, ranchers and timber interests, the faith community, citizen’s organizations and other government officials. Third, simultaneous with the first two activities we will develop an extensive, active network of lawyers and judges around the state committed to state-wide advocacy leading to a more democratic, representative and functional constitution for all Alabamians.

Appleseed joins two other groups actively working on some aspect of constitutional reform -- Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform (ACCR) and Greater Birmingham Ministries/Constitutional Reform Project (GBM).  Both support our initiative. However, they are working mainly to strengthen a grassroots movement for the primary purpose of advocating for one of the two means of amending the constitution - calling of a state constitutional convention.  Appleseed will concentrate on the needed substantive reforms, and will avoid becoming enmeshed in which of the two amending processes is preferred.  Our initiative also includes a “grasstops” element, to bring to the reform table those leaders of the various groups mentioned above not now part of the conversation. We believe there needs to be focused work at both levels for constitutional reform in Alabama to be successful.   Also, at least one state legislator has prepared with banking and other business organizations proposed constitutional reforms that were not adopted in 2008, but will be proposed in 2009.  This approach will be monitored and incorporated in Appleseed’s work as appropriate.