Supreme Court Allows Soldier to Sue Military Contractor Over Taliban Attack
In a significant Supreme Court decision, Justice Clarence Thomas authored a majority opinion allowing former Army Specialist Winston T. Hencely to sue military contractor Fluor Corporation. Hencely, who suffered severe injuries in a 2016 Taliban suicide bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, claims Fluor negligently supervised Ahmad Nayeb, a Taliban operative involved in the attack. The case centers on whether state law claims against military contractors are preempted by federal law during wartime. The Supreme Court vacated a lower court's judgment that had blocked the lawsuit, with Thomas arguing that no constitutional provision or federal statute justifies such preemption. The decision saw an unusual alignment of justices, with the three liberal justices joining Thomas, while Justice Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented. 
