The Human Trafficking Case That Could Hand Government Contractors Blanket Immunity

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Criminal Justice
Oct 10, 2025
Katya Schwenk

In a little-noticed Supreme Court case, the country’s largest private prison operator argues companies should be shielded from lawsuits when doing the government’s dirty work.

After being sued for violating state-level human trafficking laws, the nation’s largest private prison company is pushing the U.S. 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.

https://www.levernews.com/the-human-trafficking-case-that-could-hand-government-contractors-blanket-immunity/