HB454 Alabama 2025 Session

Updated Feb 23, 2026

Notable

Summary

Primary Sponsor: Steve HurstRepresentative
Republican
Session: 2025 Regular Session
Title: Crimes and offenses; crime of tampering with a legislative record, established
Summary: HB454 creates a new crime called tampering with a legislative record for locally published legal notices.
What This Bill Does
It adds a new section (13A-10-12.1) establishing the crime. A person who is asked to publish a legal notice about a proposed local law must not alter the notice without the sponsoring legislator’s permission. If the notice is altered to change the local law’s scope, purpose, or effect and then published, it would be a Class A misdemeanor. The act becomes effective October 1, 2025.

Who It Affects
People or organizations hired to publish local legal notices (such as newspapers or contract workers) who must avoid unauthorized alterations.
Sponsoring legislators and their offices, because the notice must be published with their authorization and unauthorized changes could trigger the crime.

Key Provisions
Creates new Code Section 13A-10-12.1 establishing the crime of tampering with a legislative record.
Requires the notice to be published in accordance with Section 106 of the Alabama Constitution and prohibits unauthorized alterations intended to change the local law’s description.
A violation is a Class A misdemeanor.
Effective date: October 1, 2025.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.
Subjects: Crimes & Offenses