Montgomery is a very different place now than when Republicans first won control of the legislature in 2010 — a difference that is most evident by how the governing GOP majority has come to view the Alabama Education Association (AEA), its political work and the political contributions it makes from Alabama Voice of Teachers for Education (A-VOTE), the organization's political action committee.
In December 2010, Gov. Bob Riley called a special session in which the legislature took up seven ethics-related bills, one of which placed strict limits on the use of money collected via payroll deductions managed by the state for public-sector unions.
"Thanks to last month's elections, we have an historic opportunity to not only reform this corrupt political culture but end it. The opportunity to enact real reforms has never been better and the need has never been greater," Riley said when calling the session, according to a WSFA story.
Senate Bill 2 (SB2) was sponsored by then-Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston), who argued that the bill was meant to safeguard state resources.
"We're not in the business of using taxpayer dollars and take those dues and use them for political purposes and use them to possibly affect the legislative process," Marsh told the Tuscaloosa News at the time. "It is unethical for us to use taxpayer dollars for political purposes."
Specifically, the new law would state that payroll deductions cannot be used for the seven items listed in Section 17-17-5.
Section 17-17-5 Improper Use of State Property, Time, Etc., for Political Activities
(a) No person in the employment of the State of Alabama, a county, a city, a local school board, or any other governmental agency, whether classified or unclassified, shall use any state, county, city, local school board, or other governmental agency funds, property, or time, for any political activities.
(b)(1) No person in the employment of the State of Alabama, a county, a city, a local school board, or any other governmental agency may arrange by salary deduction or otherwise for any payments to a political action committee or arrange by salary deduction or otherwise for any payments for the dues of any person so employed to a membership organization which uses any portion of the dues for political activity. For purposes of this subsection only, political activity shall be limited to all of the following:
a. Making contributions to or contracting with any entity which engages in any form of political communication, including communications which mention the name of a political candidate.
b. Engaging in or paying for public opinion polling.
c. Engaging in or paying for any form of political communication, including communications which mention the name of a political candidate.
d. Engaging in or paying for any type of political advertising in any medium.
e. Phone calling for any political purpose.
f. Distributing political literature of any type.
g. Providing any type of in-kind help or support to or for a political candidate.
It didn't take long for the AEA to sue to block the law's implementation, filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in February 2011.
Two days before the Act was set to take effect, the court issued an injunction, "Finding that the Act was likely overbroad in violation of the First Amendment and void for vagueness under the Due Process Clause."
The state then appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In December 2011, a full year after the bill was passed, the Eleventh Circuit asked the State Supreme Court to interpret the law. The State Supreme Court would do so in October 2013, but in the meantime, the drama continued in Alabama.
In the following years, there were numerous court procedural moves and counter moves, including the AEA attempting to subpoena lawmakers. An effort blocked by the Eleventh Circuit.
Finally, in September 2016, then-Attorney General Luther Strange declared the fight over.
"The ruling was the final opinion in litigation that has spanned five years and produced five separate appellate opinions," the statement read.
"These laws shared a common theme: to enhance ethics and integrity in our state government," said Strange. "Challenges to a majority of those laws have been brought and pursued at length. But every one of these challenges to reach final resolution has failed."
The AEA learned to address one of the problems they faced in the law by removing A-VOTE funding from payroll deduction and instead allowing members to opt in to contributions via an automatic bank draft.
That brings us to the biggest changes in the last 10 years.
These have included not just the normalcy of Republican candidates accepting money from AEA's PAC but also brazen public acknowledgments that, behind the scenes, AEA has continued to exert enough influence that they openly celebrated defeating school choice to their members.
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