In a column in the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser, two research fellows at the (you guessed it) Southern Poverty Law Center have raised the ultimate fear of not being a member of ICLEI:  No grant money for sustainability!  (Of course blame John Birch and call it names!)

SB 477 isn’t just pointless; it’s actually stupid. If Birmingham and Huntsville are forced to withdraw from ICLEI, they will no longer be eligible to receive certain grants for sustainability programs. There’s not exactly a surfeit of dollars floating around those cities for programs of any kind, making this decision by state legislators to block local governments’ efforts to apply for such funding even more disturbing.

Well, that is precisely the point:  Sustainability is the problem!  Now maybe the local leaders will make decisions like Carroll County MD did!  (I am still trying to figure out how all this relates to poverty law?)  Therefore the goal is repeal:

Our lawmakers, who according to al.com reporter George Altman passed the bill practically without debate, should be ashamed of themselves. Alabama voters should let our representatives know that we’re paying attention to what they’re voting for — and that at the very least, we expect them to pay attention to what they’re voting for, too.

Alabama voters I feel will reject UN nostrums and unconstitutional associations such as ICLEI.  Let’s see what happens.  Cities such as Huntsville and Birmingham cannot have a foreign policy.  Time to follow the law.  GET OUT OF ICLEI!  Only got until July 31!

Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written seven scholarly legal articles and was an adjunct at T. C. Williams School of Law. (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)

Elwood "Sandy" Sanders

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