Legislative Wrap-Up, 0520 ALBJ, 81 The Alabama Lawyer 228 (2020)

• Author: Othni J. Lathram Director, Legislative Services Agency.
• Position: Vol. 81 3 Pg. 228

LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP

Vol. 81 No. 3 Pg. 228

Alabama Bar Lawyer

May, 2020

Othni J. Lathram Director, Legislative Services Agency.

Continuity of Government: The Legislature

Thanks to the patience of the tremendous editors and staff of The Alabama Lawyer and the Alabama State Bar, I am working on this article well past the prescribed deadline and as our nation and state are in the midst of a public health emergency the likes of which most of us have never experienced. We are all seeing the world and the responses of its inhabitants play out before us in daily cycles that hit on every emotion and reaction. In that spirit, I ask that you indulge me a moment of "personal privilege" to say a few things I think important. First, I hope and pray that each of us and our loved ones make it through this with our health and a new resolve about the way in which we face each day on our journey on this earth. Second, I have never been prouder to share this profession with you.

Each day I am seeing the members of our bar do the ordinary things they do in extraordinary ways to make sure that the needs of the most vulnerable among us are met carefully and timely with little regard for personal risk and sacrifice. And finally, I am proud of our state's leaders. I know that in the scope of the many public servants and their many decisions, each of us will find some that we agree with, some that we don't, and many we just don't understand; however, I believe that the vast majority of those leaders act as best they can with the information they have to serve and protect the citizens of Alabama and with a genuine love and concern for those who are most affected by those decisions.

One area of the law that unfortunately goes largely overlooked and only gets scrutinized in times of great crisis is how we are set to survive and continue the operation of state government during an emergency. The stress that gets put on the system in times like these tests the planning and imagination that was often done decades ago in different times and in response to different challenges. I have no doubt that following this time we will propose and debate many changes to how things operate and function in times like these. In fact, I am keeping a list that changes almost daily as we react to this health crisis and welcome thoughts from each of you reading this about what worked well, what did not, and how we can improve...