Trump judges seek to revive Trump administration’s assault on state law helping former workers in closed nuclear facilities: Confirmed judges, confirmed fears

“Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears” is a blog series that documents the harmful effects President Trump’s judges had on the rights and freedoms of Americans. Cases in a row can be found by issue and judge at this link.

Judges Daniel Collins, Mark Bennett and Daniel Bress of the Trump Ninth Circuit argued differently that the entire court should overturn and reconsider a ruling that was attacked by the Trump Department of Justice and that upheld a Washington State Workers Compensation Act with the the problems encountered were resolved by former workers in a closed nuclear facility suffering from cancer and other diseases. The majority of the courts denied these allegations and declined to repeat them in their April 2021 ruling in the United States against Washington State.

In 2018, Washington State passed HB 1723, a bill that eliminated “workers compensation red tape” for former workers “suffering from cancer and other diseases” after working on the now-closed, federally-operated nuclear power plant in Hanford had the state. The law basically establishes the rebuttable presumption that such a worker suffering from leukemia, bone cancer or a number of other specified diseases is entitled to compensation for workers for exposure to hazardous radiation at the former plant. The Trump Justice Department sued, claiming the law was invalid.

Both the district court and a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circle rejected the Trump DOJ’s demands and upheld the law. The Trump DOJ tried to get the entire court to evacuate and reconsider the decision, but the court refused. Trump Judge Collins, along with Trump Judges Bennett and Bress and another Conservative judge, wrote a sharp dissent claiming that state law was “extraordinary and egregious”.

Judge Milan Smith, nominated by President George W. Bush, wrote a concurring statement criticizing Collins’ “apocalyptic” dissent, stating that he disregarded “the plain text” of the relevant statute and “misinterpreted the relevant precedents” . Both Collins and Smith recognized that the law’s validity depends on whether it was approved by US Code 40 Section 3172 (a), which states that states may “apply” their workers’ compensation laws to federal government land and facilities . in the same way and to the same extent as if the premises were subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state. “Collins argued that the law was invalid because it established rules for employee compensation that apply” in a different manner “and” to a different extent “to” under the exclusive jurisdiction of the state “with respect to current premises.

However, as Judge Smith pointed out, Collins’ interpretation ignores “the last part” of the statute text. The text makes it clear, Smith explained, that federal law does not require the state to enact “exactly the same” labor compensation law for current state and federal property, but that “it could enact the same” state law if the Hanford establishment were to be established were under the control of the state. Collins ‘reading of federal law, Smith continued, “violates the basic canon of legal construction” that courts must “obey what Congress wrote” and that Collins’ alleged “non-discrimination” principle should not be introduced into law .

Smith went on to explain that Collins’s reliance on two previous Supreme Court and Ninth Circle decisions on workers’ compensation was also misplaced. The judgments “did not persist” that Collins “alleged non-discrimination principle” prohibits the state from having different workers’ compensation rules for the federally owned Hanford facility as long as the rules set out by HB 1723 could be “applied” to a similar state facility. Neither decision, Smith concluded, supports Collins’s assertion that federal law “requires a state to adopt identical employee compensation schemes for federal and non-federal institutions”.

Judge Smith noted the uniqueness of the Hanford facility, which produced “nearly two-thirds of the nation’s weapons-grade plutonium” and included “unprecedented” cleanup operations during World War II and the Cold War. It was no surprise that Washington passed different rules on workers ‘compensation in relation to this facility, and Collins’ suggestion that compliance with those rules would somehow prevent the federal government from operating “within the borders” of the state was “too obvious “Wrong to be accepted.”

The full Ninth Circle fortunately rejected the radical arguments put forward by Trump Judges Collins, Bennett and Bress, which threatened to harm workers in Washington state. With two seats on the ninth circle already waiting for candidates and more likely to follow, it is vital to our fight for our courts that President Biden and the Senate immediately fill those seats with fair judges who can prove they are equality, Righteousness and justice enforce fundamental rights for all.