The Supreme Court should uphold the constitutionality of a 2018 Washington state law that makes it easier for workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site to qualify for compensation for illnesses, the state attorney general’s office argued Monday before the high court.
The U.S. Supreme Court, an independent branch of the federal government, agreed in January to hear the Justice Department challenge to the Washington state law. But shortly after that, in March, the state revised its worker compensation law, which the Joe Biden administration, like the Donald Trump administration, has challenged.
Essentially, Olympia changed the law to specify that the statute’s protections apply to any employee in Washington state working at a radiological hazardous waste facility, including, but not limited to, those working at Hanford.
That, state attorney general Bob Ferguson (D) has argued, should have addressed a key concern voiced by the federal government: that the law from 2018, House Bill 1723, singled out Hanford workers and the Hanford site.
U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart disagreed, telling the high court Monday that “the case is not moot.”
The state law “is limited to a specific federal facility, and even within that facility, it applies only to workers engaged in the performance of federal … contracts, not to state or purely private workers,” said Stewart, according to a transcript of the arguments. A link to audio of the oral argument can be found here.
Stewart did acknowledge, when questioned by Justice Elena Kagan, that if the March revisions to the Washington law were made earlier, the Department of Justice might or might have have appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
Under the Washington law, later upheld by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Hanford workers suffering from certain respiratory diseases and neurological problems could have an easier time qualifying for benefits.
Washington Deputy Solicitor General Tera Heintz argued that even the 2018 version of the Washington law withstands legal scrutiny because it complies with a congressional standard that allows states to regulate federal contractors much the same as private companies — but that’s a dead issue now.
“The federal government is asking you to issue a constitutional ruling invalidating a state law that no longer exists and that has no ongoing effect,” Heintz argued Monday.
Both the federal and state attorneys touched upon whether the 2018 and 2022 versions of the workers comp law carve out some type of special category for the Hanford Site.
“Hanford is a unique site,” said Heintz. “It is the most toxic workplace in America. [T]he employees there are around 56 million gallons of toxic and radiological hazard waste and they have unique exposures,” which sometimes are tough to document.
Heintz also said because the new law will replace the 2018 version, it will not create a lot of headaches with pending cases. Since the 2018 worker compensation law was enacted, there are 140 closed cases — and the federal government did not challenge any of those. There are only 66 cases pending since 2018, so the entire universe of compensation claims under the Washington law is a little more than 200, Heintz said.
