U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has extended a restraining order stopping the enforcement of a portion of the state's immigration law until Dec. 12 to allow him time to consider arguments and complex issues in the case.
     The Central Alabama Fair Housing Center filed the federal lawsuit Nov. 18 against the state's revenue commissioner, Julie Magee, and the probate judge in Elmore County to try to stop a portion of the law that the plaintiffs believe violates the U.S. Constitution and the Fair Housing Act.
     The pertinent section of the law prohibits anyone in the country illegally from entering into a business transaction with the state or a political subdivision of the state, which the plaintiffs contend illegally requires those purchasing decals needed to register manufactured homes to produce documentation verifying their citizenship status.

A new federal lawsuit was filed Friday challenging a section of Alabama's immigration law that civil rights groups say makes it impossible for those who can't prove U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status to legally keep their manufactured homes.
     The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Montgomery by two immigrants in Elmore County named in the lawsuit only as "John Doe No. 1" and "John Doe No. 2." They are challenging a section of the law that prohibits most contracts where one party is an illegal immigrant.
     Attorneys for the plaintiffs say that provision is being used by state revenue officials to keep illegal immigrants from paying an annual registration fee and obtaining a decal that by law must be displayed on manufactured homes. State law requires the registration to be renewed by Nov. 30.

Responding to an investigation conducted by three Montgomery-based nonprofits, the United States Department of Justice filed a Fair Housing Act lawsuit on Thursday against a property manager in Montgomery for sexual harassment of female tenants, many of whom are in the Section 8 rental voucher program. The lawsuit alleges that Jamarlo GumBayTay engaged in a pattern or practice of making sexual advances towards female tenants, subjecting them to unwanted touching, granting or denying rental services based on response to his sexual advances, and taking adverse action against those who did not comply with his requests for sex. The lawsuit also names as defendants the property owners who hired Mr. GumBayTay to manage their properties.
     This case comes on the heels of an earlier federal lawsuit filed against GumBayTay in February 2007 for sexual harassment against a non-Section 8 tenant, Yolanda Boswell. Ms. Boswell’s case, which is set for trial in October, was brought by the ACLU of Alabama, The Central Alabama Fair Housing Center (CAFHC), and Legal Services Alabama (LSA). In that case, which is factually similar to the allegations in the Justice Department’s suit, U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins has already issued a preliminary injunction against GumBayTay. Not long after the Boswell case was filed, the three organizations initiated an investigation in order to discover if any other tenants had been sexually harassed by GumBayTay, and that investigation produced 12 new complaints. After conducting exhaustive interviews and research, the ACLU, CAFHC, and LSA referred the new complaints to the Department of Justice, which conducted its own investigation and elected to file a “pattern or practice” suit.

The number of Alabama residents willing to go to court over job discrimination has fallen sharply in the past decade, a trend legal experts link to a more conservative judicial system.
     In 1996, there were 1,085 federal lawsuits filed in Alabama alleging an employer discriminated against a worker because of his or her national origin, race, sex, religion or age.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is not above "the rule of law" and must remove a Ten Commandments monument the size of a washing machine from the lobby of the state judicial building.
     A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unanimously affirmed an order from U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson that the monument violates the Constitution's prohibition on government promotion of religion. Thompson had ordered the monument removed from the building, but delayed the order while Moore appealed.
     A spokesman for Moore said the chief justice would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was unclear whether the monument would stay in place during further appeals.