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By ABC 33/40
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the City of Birmingham, Mayor Randall Woodfin and several City Council members challenging Alabama’s restructuring of the Birmingham Water Works Board.
U.S. District Judge Anna M. Manasco issued the ruling Wednesday, Oct. 15, dismissing all nine counts in the lawsuit against Gov. Kay Ivey, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, Attorney General Steve Marshall and other state and local officials.
The lawsuit challenged Alabama Act 2025-297, which Ivey signed into law in May 2025. The legislation restructured the Water Works Board into a regional authority, now known as Central Alabama Water, and reduced Birmingham’s exclusive control over board appointments.
The plaintiffs argued that the law violated constitutional protections, impaired existing contractual rights and reduced the influence of residents in predominantly Black Birmingham.
Manasco dismissed the federal claims, finding that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to pursue them. The judge concluded that the ratepayers had not demonstrated a sufficiently specific individual injury and that the city plaintiffs had not shown their alleged injuries could be traced to or remedied by the named defendants.
The court also dismissed the plaintiffs’ state constitutional claims without prejudice after declining to exercise jurisdiction over them.
The ruling follows a separate federal lawsuit challenging the restructuring that Manasco dismissed in August. That case was brought by former Water Works board members William Muhammad and Brenda Lewis and was dismissed with prejudice.
Unlike the August ruling, the Oct. 15 dismissal was without prejudice, meaning the claims were not automatically barred from being brought again, subject to applicable legal requirements.
The latest ruling does not decide the underlying constitutional questions on their merits. Instead, the court concluded that the plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue their claims in this case.
