The State of Alabama argued that states frequently regulate the authority of cities and maintained that its actions had nothing to do with race. A district court initially dismissed the fast-food workers’ lawsuit saying the plaintiffs could not prove racial discrimination. But last month, the Atlanta-based United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit noted the racial history of Alabama, the white-led state action to overturn Birmingham’s ordinance, and the state law’s discriminatory effect on the city’s majority-black population. The court held that Birmingham workers had presented a valid legal claim and compelling allegations of discrimination, and the ruling reinstated the lawsuit to allow the plaintiffs to prove their case, stressing that racial discrimination could take many forms. “[I]t hides, abashed, cloaked beneath ostensibly neutral laws and legitimate bases, steering government power toward no less invidious ends.”

Source: New York Times August 20, 2018 15:07 UTC