Overview
- The Supreme Court, which ruled Wednesday in a 6-3 split, vacated a lower-court dismissal and allowed former Army specialist Winston Hencely’s negligence suit against Fluor to move forward.
- Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, saying contractors are not automatically shielded when their conduct was not authorized by the military, even in a war zone.
- Justices Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented, arguing the Constitution’s war powers bar state tort suits against contractors operating in combat theaters.
- Hencely was gravely injured in 2016 at Bagram Airfield after confronting Ahmad Nayeb, an Afghan worker linked to Fluor, who detonated a suicide vest that killed five people and wounded more than a dozen.
- The case now returns to the lower courts, where Hencely’s claims of negligent retention and supervision will be tested, supported by an Army probe that faulted Fluor’s oversight of the attacker.