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Judi Lynn

(160,530 posts) Thu Apr 28, 2016, 05:50 PM Apr 2016

Alabama's minimum wage restriction challenged as racially biased

Source: Reuters

Alabama's minimum wage restriction challenged as racially biased

By Joseph Ax
April 28, 2016

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Civil rights groups and fast-food workers in Birmingham, Alabama, filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday claiming a state law that prohibits cities from instituting higher minimum wages is racially discriminatory.

The lawsuit, which names Governor Robert Bentley and state Attorney General Luther Strange as defendants, says the legislation is tainted by "racial animus" and violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.

The city council in Birmingham, where three quarters of the approximately 210,000 residents are black, had passed an ordinance raising the minimum wage from the federal rate of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour.

Within weeks of the council's formal adoption of the law in February, the state legislature approved a bill precluding municipalities from passing their own minimum wage laws, thus voiding the Birmingham statute.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/alabamas-minimum-wage-restriction-challenged-racially-biased-170431124.html?nhp=1

7 replies

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Highlight:

Alabama's minimum wage restriction challenged as racially biased (Original Post) Judi Lynn Apr 2016 OP

The state rep (R) who introduced the precluding bill: trof Apr 2016 #1

I doubt if the intent of that legislation was racially motivated groundloop Apr 2016 #2

So much for "local control".. denbot Apr 2016 #3

Good point. Local control is only allowed when it benefits the 1 percenters. groundloop Apr 2016 #5

These people are evil m/f's. Elmer S. E. Dump Apr 2016 #4

So much for government should be more local argument (not the challenge, but the law forbidding incr PersonNumber503602 Apr 2016 #6

The folks here must have learned well... DAMANgoldberg Apr 2016 #7

trof

(54,256 posts)

1. The state rep (R) who introduced the precluding bill:

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Apr 28, 2016, 06:19 PM

Apr 2016

He lives in and represents Mountain Brook, a bedroom community to Birmingham, and the wealthiest town in Alabama.

groundloop

(11,519 posts)

2. I doubt if the intent of that legislation was racially motivated

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Apr 28, 2016, 07:05 PM

Apr 2016

I certainly agree that the minimum wage needs to be higher. I don't see the legislation as much racist as I do anti-working class. With that being said, I'd be glad to see ANY means of overturning it succeed.

denbot

(9,899 posts)

3. So much for "local control"..

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Apr 28, 2016, 07:27 PM

Apr 2016

Simply rank hypocrisy.

groundloop

(11,519 posts)

5. Good point. Local control is only allowed when it benefits the 1 percenters.

Reply to denbot (Reply #3)

Thu Apr 28, 2016, 10:58 PM

Apr 2016

Elmer S. E. Dump

(5,751 posts)

4. These people are evil m/f's.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Apr 28, 2016, 08:04 PM

Apr 2016

I hope I live long enough to see a tipping of the balance towards sanity and reason. I DO NOT want to leave my kids alone with this shit.

PersonNumber503602

(1,134 posts)

6. So much for government should be more local argument (not the challenge, but the law forbidding incr

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Thu Apr 28, 2016, 11:06 PM

Apr 2016

DAMANgoldberg

(1,278 posts)

7. The folks here must have learned well...

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Apr 29, 2016, 12:08 AM

Apr 2016

at the feet of my home state legislature. What the Alabama law and North Carolina laws do at their heart as well as Michigan's Emergency Manager law is usurp local control of governance if it doesn't go the way TPTB @ state level want it. In the rest of the world, it would be called Dictatorship or rule by Monarch. But we are the USA so we have to be "special" and call it modern Republicanism.

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