Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Dismisses code enforcement discrimination claim brought by Ethiopian restaurants

This post was authored by Amy Lavine, Esq.

In an Eleventh Circuit case decided in 2023, an Ethiopian restaurant in DeKalb County, Georgia sued the county, claiming that county officials had targeted its restaurant and other Ethiopian restaurants for racial discrimination and selective enforcement of the county’s building and zoning regulations. The district court initially ruled in the restaurant’s favor and declined to grant qualified immunity to the county defendants, but the Eleventh Circuit reversed on appeal. The court explained that the restaurant’s claim of racial discrimination failed because “there’s no binding law in this circuit clearly establishing that a corporation can have a race or that officials can discriminate against a corporation because of the corporation’s race.” Additionally, given the lack of any such binding law or policy, the court found that the county officials were  entitled to qualified immunity.

Sheba Ethiopian Rest. v. Dekalb Cnty., Ga., 2023 WL 3750710 (11th Cir 6/1/23)