In a surprising ruling on Wednesday, the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals restored a discrimination challenge brought against the city of Birmingham Alabama by African-American fast-food workers. The suit, initially filed in 2016, alleged that the state’s mostly white legislature violated the civil rights of black workers by nullifying a new minimum wage in Birmingham, where most of the workforce is black. The suit was initially dismissed in court, but the 11th Circuit found that the workers had a ‘plausible claim’ of discrimination on the basis of race, in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the appeals court restoring the discrimination claim as plausible, the lawsuit has been resurrected and remanded back to the district court where the question of discrimination in violation of the 14th Amendment will be heard.
