This is a guest opinion

At a time when politics can feel hopelessly divided, Alabama lawmakers achieved an unusual victory this session. They set aside their differences and unanimously passed reforms to protect privacy and free speech.

Senate Bill 59, also known as The Personal Privacy Protection Act, ensures that Alabamians’ personal information is secure when donating to worthy nonprofit causes. It prohibits state agencies from demanding, collecting, or publicly releasing the names and addresses of nonprofit members and donors, except where required by current law.

“People have a right to give to the causes they support without having their information taken and abused,” said Alabama Senator Rodger Smitherman, who sponsored S.B. 59.

States are waking up to the danger of leaving personal data unsecure. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a group of nonprofits in a lawsuit over the California Attorney General’s demand for their donor lists. Nearly 300 nonprofit groups joined briefs in the case urging the Court to shut down California’s dragnet.

“Far from representing uniquely sensitive causes, these organizations span the ideological spectrum, and indeed the full range of human endeavors: from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund; from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to the Zionist Organization of America; from Feeding America—Eastern Wisconsin to PBS Reno…,” Chief Justice John Roberts noted in the majority opinion.

The Court’s ruling reaffirmed that Americans have a First Amendment right to support nonprofit causes privately. Private giving protects Americans from having their voices silenced through harassment and intimidation tactics.

S.B. 59 codifies the Court’s ruling in Alabama and boosts privacy and free speech throughout the state.

“The First Amendment protects not only our right to speak, but also our freedom to join together with other citizens and organizations representing our values. S.B. 59 adds necessary safeguards to prevent these rights from being chilled,” explained Dillon Nettles, the Policy and Advocacy Director at the ACLU of Alabama.

Sixteen other states have already adopted their own version of S.B. 59′s protections for nonprofit supporters, including Alabama’s neighbors in Mississippi and Tennessee. Privacy is proving popular on the left and the right, in red states and blue states. Yet Alabama’s victory is of special historical importance because it is the birthplace of modern privacy protections for nonprofits and their members.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Alabama state officials sought to force the NAACP to turn over a list of its members in the state. They refused, and the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Justices’ 9-0 ruling in favor of the NAACP – issued 65 years ago on June 30, 1958 – became a landmark First Amendment decision.

“It is hardly a novel perception that compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy may constitute as effective a restraint on freedom of association as [other] forms of governmental action,” the Court observed.

In the years following NAACP v. Alabama, the Court continued to police and reject government efforts to surveil the members and supporters of advocacy groups. Over time, however, states began to slip back into old habits. California’s recent requirement that nonprofits turn over their donor lists before soliciting funds in the state directly contradicted NAACP v. Alabama.

Fortunately, courts, legislators, and the nonprofit community are pushing back. No one should have to risk their safety or their career to support the causes they believe in. In today’s hyper-connected world, with new and omnipresent threats from doxing and digital surveillance, a recommitment to privacy is needed. The passage of S.B. 59 shows progress is possible. All Alabamians should be thankful for Senator Rodger Smitherman, Representative Danny Garrett, and Governor Kay Ivey for championing this legislation and ensuring it became law.

Alabama has come a long way in six decades from being unanimously rebuked at the Supreme Court to unanimously passing new protections for privacy. Such a strong win for civil liberties is a beacon of hope in our troubled times.

Heather Lauer is the CEO of People United for Privacy, a nonprofit that defends the First Amendment rights of all Americans – regardless of their beliefs – to come together in support of their shared values.