Rep. Napoleon Bracy Appeals Dismissal of Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Austal to the Eleventh Circuit
State Rep. Napoleon Bracy has filed notice to appeal the dismissal of his racial discrimination lawsuit against shipbuilder Austal. A federal judge ruled for the company on summary judgment in September.
MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge’s dismissal of state Rep. Napoleon Bracy’s racial discrimination lawsuit against shipbuilder Austal may not be the final word.
Attorney Candis McGowan filed a notice on Thursday, Oct. 29, with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, appealing the September dismissal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The notice did not explain Bracy’s reasons for appealing.
The original claims
Bracy, a Democrat who has represented Alabama House District 98 since 2010, sued Austal in December 2024, alleging that the Australia-based shipbuilding company ended his employment because he is Black. The lawsuit also alleged he was terminated because he unsuccessfully advocated for another Black man, Rodney Patrick, to become Austal’s next vice president of human resources.
What the judge ruled
On Sept. 30, Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, siding with Austal’s motion for summary judgment, which said Bracy’s termination “was legitimate, non-retaliatory and non-pretextual.”
Beaverstock wrote that he was “unconvinced” of Bracy’s racial discrimination claims. He said it is an “undisputed fact” that Bracy did not properly record his legislative duties for one week in March 2024. Austal allowed Bracy to log time performing legislative duties as “jury duty” in the company’s timekeeping system.
“Although Plaintiff has presented evidence that he was permitted to use the jury code classification for attendance to things other than the legislative session and that he believed ‘constituent week’ was one of those other permitted events, the record remains undisputed that Plaintiff did not indicate on his time record that he was performing ‘constituent week’ service on the dates in question,” the order reads. “Here, the description of what he was doing was verifiably false.”
What happens next
A dismissal with prejudice generally means a claim cannot be refiled in the same court, which makes an appeal the available path to challenging the ruling. The Eleventh Circuit will now take up the case, on a schedule yet to be reported.
