ICE’s Private Prison Contractor Is Hoping to Get Blanket Immunity
After being sued for violating state-level human trafficking laws, GEO Group, the nation’s largest private prison company, is pushing the Supreme Court to grant private government contractors like itself blanket immunity from such lawsuits.
More than a decade ago, the GEO Group, a private prison company with deep pockets and powerful allies in the Trump administration, was sued under Colorado law for forcing immigrants in its custody to work without pay. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP via Getty Images)
After being sued for violating state-level human trafficking laws, the nation’s largest private prison company is pushing the US Supreme Court to grant private government contractors like itself blanket immunity from such lawsuits and many others.
This case — and another involving a military contractor — could deliver sweeping immunity to federal contractors if they get the ruling they want from the high court, allowing them to operate with even greater impunity than they already do.
The two cases have drawn little attention amid a slate of enormously consequential legal battles currently before the Supreme Court. But they offer a window into a decades-long fight by government contractors to avoid public accountability in court, a battle that has ramped up as the federal government has outsourced ever more of its operations to powerful private firms.
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