AL.com: Alabama clashes with advocacy group in federal court over felony disenfranchisement suit

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Lawyers for the state of Alabama sparred Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Montgomery with attorneys representing a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit over issues related to Alabama's felony disenfranchisement law.

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The Campaign Legal Center argued Tuesday that information about the new law's implications must be distributed swiftly in order to limit further harm to those felons who wrongly lost the franchise before the new law was passed.

The group said that the injunction must be issued immediately so the state and advocacy groups can get the word out to as many felons who are newly eligible to vote as possible before the Aug. 1 cut-off to register to vote in the August 15 special election.

"The harm has not been resolved ... With the exception of a few years in the eighties, since 1901, there has been an arbitrary system of disenfranchisement," Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel for voting rights and redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center, said. "We're asking the court to do a few very simple things."

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