On Friday, April 19, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed a decision by a Bessemer Division judge, who initially dismissed the cases over lack of jurisdiction.
This case was started when the Attorney General’s Office filed search warrants in Jefferson County’s Birmingham Division for 14 electronic bingo businesses in early 2023.
During the initial hearing, Judge Elisabeth French entered temporary restraining orders, or TROs, and transferred eight cases to the Bessemer Division.
The cases were given to Bessemer Division Circuit Judge David Carpenter, who found the Birmingham Division lacked jurisdiction to enter the TROs. Carpenter then dissolved the TROs and dismissed the cases.
The Supreme Court discovered that the Birmingham Division had jurisdiction to make the decisions in question and reversed Carpenter’s order.
Before the cases were dismissed in the Bessemer Division, the state had requested a preliminary injunction to keep the businesses closed while the cases were prosecuted. The Supreme Court ordered a hearing be set “at the earliest possible time” for that preliminary hearing.