Class Action Suit Filed Against Governor Riley

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Posted by: JSKeppy
Date: Jul 29 2010 3:53 PM

Statement by attorneys for plaintiffs in Johnson et al. v. Riley:

Voters and elected officials in Greene and Macon County today filed a class action suit in federal court against Governor Bob Riley and his Task Force Commander John Tyson. The complaint alleges that the Governor has violated the Voting Rights Act by nullifying the votes of the electorates in Greene and Macon Counties who approved constitutional amendments in 2003 authorizing electronic bingo operations in their counties. The complaint also alleges that the gestapo style raids carried out by the Governor and his Task Force have the racially discriminatory purpose of perpetuating Alabama's historical denial of home rule to Black Belt counties, in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

The recent actions of the Governor and his Task Force in Greene and Macon County are reminiscent of the systematic deprivation of the voting rights of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s and are exactly the types of injustice that the Voting Rights Act was designed to address.

Without a single dissenting vote, the Legislature of Alabama approved the constitutional amendments and authorized the people of Greene and Macon County to vote on electronic bingo and to allow the local sheriff to regulate it. The referendum elections were precleared by the United States Justice Department and the citizens of Greene and Macon County overwhelmingly voted yes. For six years, the Greene and Macon County sheriffs regulated bingo in accordance with the power vested in them by those constitutional amendments. For six years, Governor Riley did not bring a single job to Greene or Macon County. It was only after bingo brought employment, prosperity, and stability to these poor, predominantly black counties that Riley decided he had to put an end to it.

The Constitution of Alabama says that electronic bingo is legal in Greene and Macon County. The Constitution of Alabama says that the sheriffs of those counties--not the governor--shall regulate bingo. And, the Constitution of Alabama proclaims that we are a nation of laws and not of men. No single man should be able to veto the constitutional amendments enacted by the people of a county. No single man should be able to deprive the citizens of this state of their right to vote.

Today, with the filing of this lawsuit, the citizens of Greene and Macon County say to Governor Riley and John Tyson: "We will no longer stand by while you deprive us of our votes, trample our rights, and ignore our laws. We are not afraid today. Our voices will be heard. Our votes will be counted. And we will continue to fight until the 'bright day of justice emerges'. We shall overcome."

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