The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday in the case of Williams v. Washington (No. 23-191) that an Alabama law requiring people to go through the state’s administrative process before filing federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 is unconstitutional. The 5-4 decision found that the law created an unfair barrier to asserting federal rights.

The law, upheld by Alabama’s Supreme Court in 2023, required unemployment benefits claimants to complete the state’s appeals process before going to court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, said this rule unlawfully blocked claimants from seeking faster resolutions under federal law. He noted that states cannot shield officials from lawsuits this way.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, joined by three other justices. He argued that Alabama was simply managing its court system and had the right to set such rules.

This ruling clarifies past Supreme Court decisions from the 1980s, which barred states from requiring people to go through administrative processes before filing civil rights lawsuits. The case was brought by 22 Alabamians, including Nancy Williams, who said the state’s long delays in handling unemployment claims violated their rights.

Alabama’s former labor secretary, Fitzgerald Washington, defended the law, saying it only determined how state courts handled such cases. The Alabama Supreme Court had agreed with him, ruling that claimants must go through the state’s process first.

Employment attorney Alejandro Caffarelli of Caffarelli & Associates Ltd. explained that the Supreme Court’s rationale is likely to extend to private sector employees under 42 U.S.C. Section 1981.