The nation’s high court has ruled that a 2018 law in Washington state broadening the scope of federal and federal contractor employees who can claim workers compensation benefits related to work at the Hanford nuclear waste cleanup site violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
In a unanimous opinion released June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed rulings by lower courts that upheld the state law, stating that it “discriminates against the federal government and its contractors” by requiring the U.S. government to pay millions of dollars in claims that state and private employers would not be required to pay.