Race Bias Suit over Alabama Wage Law Faces Legal Standing Doubts

Before Birmingham fast-food workers can try to prove Alabama’s minimum wage law was racially motivated, they need to show they’re suing the right people in the right court and asking for the right relief.

Attorneys arguing the case before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit were peppered with questions about whether the plaintiffs had legal standing and whether the court could fix the alleged injuries by finding the Alabama law unconstitutional.

“You’re out of court without redressability,” Chief Judge Ed Carnes told plaintiffs’ attorney Eric P. Brown of Altshuler Berzon LLP.

A group of workers, the ...