Attorneys Roy Moore and John Eidsmoe express concerns about proposed constitutional changes

The voters of Alabama will go to the polls on Tuesday to vote to elect new leaders for federal, state, judicial, and local office. Perhaps more importantly, the voters are being asked to approve major changes to the Alabama Constitution of 1901. The state legislature is asking voters to approve a recompiled constitution as well as ten proposed constitutional amendments to the state constitution. 

Alabama Today spoke on Thursday with former Chief Justice Roy Moore and law professor and retired Colonel John Eidsmoe about the proposed changes to the state’s foundational legal document.

Moore and Eidsmoe said that they are strongly opposed to both Amendments 2 and 7. 

Amendment 2 would amend the constitution so that local governments are able to legally “give a thing of value” to private entities or corporations in order to expand broadband services.

Amendment 7 makes it easier for local governments to sell bonds to finance economic and industrial development. As part of that, it removes the requirement that the people of the town or county get to vote on any proposed bond issue.

“That is a not function of government,” Eidsmoe said of broadband expansion.                                                                                                                                             

“The government is picking winners and losers,” Moore said when one business gets an incentive, and another does not.

Moore and Eidsmoe were asked if there was an amendment or two that they really liked and wanted to encourage voters to please go and vote to ratify.

“Amendment three,” Eidsmoe answered.

Amendment three requires a governor to notify the family of a victim before commuting a death sentence.

In addition to the ten amendments on the ballot, the Legislature has recompiled the state constitution, shortening it, and grouping like topics together, while removing racist and archaic language from the document. Voters are being asked to ratify the legislature’s version of the recompiled constitution.

“We are for removing the racist language (from the Constitution),” Eidsmoe said. “What we are not comfortable with is the process. I have gone through it, and I don’t find anything wrong with it.”

“I am simply uncomfortable with the process,” Moore said. “They say that it is the longest constitution in the world, but that is because they (the Legislature) keep adding amendments to it. The problem is the Legislature.”

Eidsmoe said that when the United States Constitution is amended, they don’t eliminate the original passages when it is amended, the original words remain, like the Alabama Constitution as it exists today.

“It shows the history of the document,” Eidsmoe explained.

Eidsmoe said that they had opposed a previous effort to strike the racist language because it also struck a provision stating that there is no right to a state-funded education for fears that liberals could use that equity funding issue to cost the taxpayers billions of dollars.

“That seems to still be in there,” Eidsmoe said of the provision to protect the state from having to provide equitable education to every child in the state.

Moore said that he felt that the legislature did “more than what was necessary.” He also expressed misgivings about the lack of openness and transparency in the process by which the Legislature change the Constitution, as well as concerns about the ramifications of wording changes.

Eidsmoe and Moore also expressed their concerns about the proposed Amendment One – Anaiah’s Law.

“I feel terrible about what happened to Anaiah Blanchard,” Moore said. “But that is not a reason to go and change the constitution.”

Anaiah’s law would allow prosecutors to ask a judge for a hearing to deny bail to dangerous felons. Under current law, a judge can only deny bail in a capital offense or when the accused is considered to be a flight risk.

Eidsmoe said that judges can already make bail prohibitively expensive.

Moore said that it was the mistake of the trial judge that Anaiah Blanchard’s killer was let out on bond for kidnapping charges, but that he did not support changing the law because of that case.

“Judges can already do that,” Moore insisted.

“I know that everyone wants to get tough on crime, but there is a conservative case for justice reform,” Eidsmoe. “The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. It shouldn’t be that way.”

Moore is the Founder and President Emeritus of the Foundation for Moral Law, while Eidsmoe is the Foundation’s lead attorney and resident scholar.

“These are not the official positions of the Foundation, but rather our personal opinions,” Eidsmoe said.

The polls open on Tuesday at 7:00 am and close at 7:00 pm. Voters can only vote at their assigned polling place and need to bring a valid photo ID to the polls with them in order to participate in Alabama elections. If a voter does not have a valid photo ID, they can get a free voter ID from their local board of registrars or by contacting the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office.

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.