Civil rights groups are appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging an Alabama law that blocked the city of Birmingham’s plans to raise the minimum hourly wage to $10.10.
Last month, U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Alabama Chapter of the NAACP and Greater Birmingham Ministries on behalf of minimum wage workers.
The groups claimed Alabama unconstitutionally targeted minorities by enacting a law that blocked the majority-black city’s local minimum wage hike.
Proctor made his decision saying the racial claims were not valid because the policy is statewide, not just in Birmingham.
“On its very face, the Act applies statewide, prohibiting ‘[a]ny [local]ordinance, policy, rule, or other mandate’ that is inconsistent with its prescribed, uniform minimum wage,” Proctor explained in his dismissal.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed an appeal Thursday to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Alabama Today’s attempts to reach the Alabama NAACP and Greater Birmingham Ministries on Thursday were unsuccessful.
