Revelations continued this month exposing disgraceful conduct by state and federal authorities in Alabama courts.

The cases have national implications, especially since the Obama Justice Department has been complicit in enforcing such injustices from the Bush-Rove era as the frame-up of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and co-defendant businessman Richard Scrushy on corruption charges. Each was sentenced to seven years in prison in a case marred by massive irregularities and protested by 113 former state attorney generals from more than 40 states who said the defendants did not commit a crime.

The most recent disclosures include those by Scrushy now that his seven-year prison term is over. Arising also are a number of unrelated scandals involving Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, left, who is continuing the notorious selective prosecution practices of his predecessors to help gamblers who contribute to their political coffers.

The pattern of major irregularities prompted Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford, right, and five co-plaintiffs to file a federal civil rights suit against Strange alleging their communities are being deprived of due process rights and such benefits as jobs because the attorney general uses his office to benefit those gamblers who support him and his political allies.

Roger Shuler, the state's leading journalist documenting such abuses, has also alleged a long-running pattern of harassment by employers and court officials in what he calls retribution against him and his wife, Carol.

Normally, we do not report on this site about allegations in personal litigation. Millions of cases in the United States are pending.

This is an exception. Shuler is courageous and credible journalist in my view. Also, little would surprise me about the federal and state court system in Alabama after my years reporting in this space about its irregularities.

Furthermore, courts around the country often demonstrate similar abuses — as indicated by several news reports excerpted below and many independent studies previously reported here.

Today's news reports include Maryland indictments of female jail guards involved in sex and drug abuse with an accused murderer under their supervision in Baltimore. The accused killer's harem of guards allegedly included one carrying his child, and two guards who tattooed his name on their bodies as a symbol of devotion to the prisoner.

Another report involves Amish men given long prison sentences in West Virginia because they forcibly cut the hair of community members they regarded as groomed inappropriately for their faith.