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Who and what the Act covers
Act 2026-591 addresses a covered operator’s sincerely held religious belief about operating on a particular day. The enacted SB 138 text gives June 1, 2026 as the effective date; the fiscal note identifies the enacted Act.
Its agreement definition includes a writing, amendment or renewal, and a course of practice involving a brand licence and franchise fee where there is no writing. Incorporated manuals can matter. Its franchisor and franchisee definitions use their own product-arrangement wording and nonidentical regulated-business exclusions; service-only coverage remains unresolved here.
Compare the actual agreement history
The Act separately treats conspicuous operating-day terms in the original or then-existing agreement, requirements accepted through agreed renewal or amendment, and agreements expanding the operator’s number of locations. These are distinct exceptions, not a blanket permission for every later term.
If you add weekend emergency response to a maintenance manual after an objection, examine whether the relevant requirement was already conspicuous in the agreement or was accepted in a qualifying later agreement. An optional alternative call-cover arrangement can help customers, but is not itself a legal exception.
A remedy requires the statutory finding
Section 1(d) allows specified damages, reasonable legal fees and costs, injunctions or other equitable relief and civil penalties after the court’s stated reasonable-cause finding. An objection alone does not establish an automatic payment or penalty.
Scope
- Service-only coverage is unresolved, and the recorded review did not comprehensively search later injunctions. This is the named opening-days law, not a general right to close on any chosen day.
Next step
Check the parties’ statutory coverage and the actual opening-days term before enforcing the schedule or deciding renewal.
Sources & review notes
Alabama Legislature
Passage, dates and research notes
primary · Section 1 b–c and section 2
This act shall become effective on June 1,
Full enrolled text read. Enactment corroborated by official fiscal note naming Act 2026-591; operative exceptions and defined parties must be assessed. No comprehensive case/injunction search or whole-code clearance claimed.
Alabama Legislative Services Agency
Passage, dates and research notes
official-guidance · SB 138 fiscal note
SB138 (Act 2026-591) as enacted
Official note identifies enacted status. Calendar cover date and updated attached fiscal-note material should not be treated as a single enactment/publication date.
Detailed rule records (2)
Act 2026-591 effective June 1, 2026 restricts specified religious-day operating requirements after a franchisee assertion, with exceptions for conspicuous existing/original terms, agreement through renewal/amendment and additional-location agreements. Assess the defined parties and exception facts before enforcing or changing operating days.
Alabama SB 138 enrolled act: religious-day operations Alabama official fiscal note identifying Act 2026-591Apply Act 2026-591’s separate agreement, franchisee and franchisor definitions and exclusions; examine original/incorporated documents, course of practice and current amendment/renewal or added-location facts before applying its protections/exceptions.
Alabama SB 138 enrolled act: religious-day operations Alabama official fiscal note identifying Act 2026-591Keep this reading in your learning library.
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