World News | Supreme Court Clears Way for Lawsuit over COVID-19 Pandemic-era Unemployment Claims in Alabama
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. People left waiting for months on their unemployment claims during the coronavirus pandemic in Alabama can sue the state, the US Supreme Court said Friday.
Washington, Feb 21 (AP) People left waiting for months on their unemployment claims during the coronavirus pandemic in Alabama can sue the state, the US Supreme Court said Friday.
The 5-4 ruling comes after the Alabama Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from 21 people, some of whom waited for months for a decision on whether they qualified for benefits, while others never got a decision or saw benefits suddenly stop without explanation, according to court documents.
One man's claim was dismissed after he missed an administrative deadline because he was on a ventilator, the lawsuit said.
The case was dismissed by the state's highest court, which found the plaintiffs must go through an unemployment agency appeals process before they can sue.
The group appealed, arguing that the appeals process was hopelessly stalled at the time, and the US Supreme Court has long held that lawsuits can be filed before a bureaucratic process is done.
The plaintiffs got support from groups across the ideological spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the US Chamber of Commerce. Requiring people to finish an appeals process before suing would undermine other lawsuits ranging from civil rights claims to businesses' challenges to state regulations, they wrote.
Alabama, which had one of the nation's highest per-capita death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, said that a skyrocketing number of unemployment claims overwhelmed the understaffed agency during the pandemic but that many of the plaintiffs' claims have since been resolved. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)