Alabama’s Ugly History of Discrimination Against Its Marginalized Citizens is Repeating Itself. This Time It Targets LGBTQ Americans

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on June 22, 2024

Rosa Parks' arrest sparked the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.

An Editorial Opinion

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Liles Burke issued an Order directing a targeted group of attorneys for LGBTQ litigants to submit "copies of any public statements they or their organizations have made about [pending] attorney-disciplinary proceedings [in his court] " by 5 p.m. today (Saturday). Those statements include “press releases, website content, social media posts, interviews, public speeches, newsletters, and public emails” relating to a three-judge panel’s ruling that was issued following its Star-Chamber "inquiry" into allegations of “judge-shopping” by the targeted attorneys.

For the reasons explained in my June 21, 2024, Op-Ed article, Judge Liles is a judicial bigot on steroids.

Liles' new Order is much like the one issued in the case of NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449 (1958). In that case, the state of Alabama sued the NAACP in the aftermath of the Montgomery bus boycott (December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956). The NAACP was actively supporting Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders and participants in the boycott.

To crush the boycott, the racist trial judge sided with racist Alabama Attorney General John Patterson during a Star-Chamber hearing (without the NAACP present) and ordered the NAACP to bring certain books, documents and papers into court on a certain date for inspection by Patterson. Of course, Patterson was seeking to wipe out NAACP-backed civil rights activism in Alabama.

Following the hearing, the trial judge ordered the NAACP to produce the following documents:

"2. All lists, documents, books, and papers, addresses and dues paid of all present members in the State of Alabama of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Incorporated. . . . .

8. All lists, books, and papers showing the names and addresses of all officers, agents, servants and employees in the State of Alabama of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc."

The NAACP refused to produce these documents and was promptly held in contempt of court. The judge imposed a $10,000 fine on the NAACP, which eventually increased to $100,000. On appeal, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed this ruling.

The NAACP appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided the case on the merits in favor of the NAACP and reversed the contempt judgment in the 1958 landmark ruling in NAACP v. Alabama.

Judge Burke is leading the same kind of misguided anti-civil rights crusade that the trial judge led in the NAACP case. Both judges issued the same kind of production order for the same reason – to quash a budding civil rights movement in Alabama. Both judges readily demonstrated their extreme judicial bigotry and tyranny against a marginalized group of citizens in Alabama society.

Sixty-nine years later, Alabama's ugly history of discriminating against its marginalized citizens is repeating itself. This time, the discrimination targets LGBTQ Americans and their legal counsel. This time, the proud ringleader of the judicial lynch mob is Judge Liles Burke.

Once again, a civil rights group in Alabama and its attorneys have been dragged back to 1950s-era judicial bigotry.

Of course, it is no coincidence that Judge Liles' latest round of extreme judicial tyranny is occurring during the LGBTQ community's celebration of Pride Month.