On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against private prison company Geo Group, denying them a fast-track appeal of a lower court ruling that found they are not immune from being sued.

The initial lawsuit was brought about in 2014 by Alejandro Menocal and other former detainees at the Aurora Immigration Processing Center in Colorado. They filed a class action lawsuit against GEO Group claiming they were forced to clean common areas and were punished with solitary confinement if they said no. Detainees claimed that they worked at the detention center for either $1 a day or no pay at all.

Geo Group, the second-largest contractor for President Trump’s mass detention campaign, didn’t think it should even be able to be sued in the first place.

The prison company argued that it deserved “derivative sovereign immunity,” something usually reserved for the government, because it works with and for the U.S. government. It also claimed that it should have the right to immediate appeals rather than after-trial appeals, which would have allowed it to ignore unfavorable rulings.

Now, thanks to the unanimous Supreme Court ruling, the forced-labor lawsuit brought by the immigrant detainees at Geo Group can move forward.

    • thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net
      3·
      6 hours ago

      We granted certiorari, 605 U. S. 968 (2025), to resolve whether a pretrial order denying Yearsley protection to a government contractor is immediately appealable. Like the Tenth Circuit, we hold that it is not. But unlike the Tenth Circuit, we focus on the third Cohen condition, which re- quires an order to be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.

      • solrize@lemmy.ml
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Hmm thanks, but still wonder why SCOTUS took the case in the first place. Also wonder whether the ruling will apply to Trump since ICE etc. have been ignoring orders from lower courts while appeals are in progress.

        • thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net
          1·
          6 hours ago

          According to the cert grant it’s a pretty well established circuit split:

          The Tenth Circuit’s decision is the latest addi- tion to a deep division in the circuit courts as to whether a denial of derivative sovereign immunity is an appealable collateral order. The Second, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuits hold that it is; the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and now Tenth Cir- cuits hold that it is not.

          It only takes 4 justices for the court to grant cert on a case, so it’s possible most of the court would prefer not to hear the case at all and leave the circuits split. I can’t find which justices voted to grant, I’m not even sure if it’s public information.

          Writ of certiorari: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-758/337176/20250113154843375_No. 24-______ Petition.pdf

          EDIT: as to it’s impact on ICE: It’s overturning precedent in a few Circuits regarding so-called “derivative soveriegn immunity” for contractors who work with government agencies, so it will probably have impacts for ICE in some parts of the country. I think it mostly means that more cases will have to churn through the lower courts before higher courts can review them, which may mean more splashy “ICE dunked on by liberal judge” headlines. I think it also means that higher courts will have to review the cases on the merits, rather than just dismissing them as unreviewable due to DSI. How many cases that applies to and what the actual implications are, IDK IANAL.

          • solrize@lemmy.ml
            2·
            4 hours ago

            Ah thanks, I had no idea that there was a circuit split or that “derivative sovereign immunity” wasn’t something pulled out of the company’s butt just for the case at hand.