After U.S. Supreme Court reversal, Alabama’s high court will allow unemployment claims case to move forward

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WHNT) — In a Friday ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court is granting plaintiffs- who sued Alabama over long delays in unemployment claims processing – a chance to have their claims heard in state court.

That ruling follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision from February that overturned the Alabama Supreme Court’s prior decision in the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court had sided with plaintiffs who argued that the Alabama high court’s finding in the case left them in an impossible position. The plaintiffs wanted to sue in order to speed up the unemployment claims review process, but the Alabama Supreme Court had ruled they could not do so – until the claims review process was completed.

Court records show the case involved 21 Alabama plaintiffs, who were not suing for unemployment benefits, but just to have the claims promptly heard.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in the court’s 5-4  opinion that plaintiffs’ did have the right to sue to under the 1983 – civil rights sections – of federal law.

“The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the claimants could not sue under §1983 to challenge delays in the administrative process until the claimants completed that process,” Kavanaugh wrote. “But that ruling created a catch-22: Because the claimants cannot sue until they complete the administrative process, they can never sue under §1983 to obtain an order expediting the administrative process. This Court’s precedents do not permit States to immunize state officials from §1983 suits in that way.”

In today’s ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed its own course. The court the plaintiffs’ unemployment processing claims should be reviewed in Alabama’s circuit courts.

State unemployment office officials argued the case was now moot because the plaintiffs’ unemployment claims had been resolved. But the plaintiffs disagreed, the Alabama Supreme Court said, and the case should be sent to the circuit court for further consideration.