The DOE Keeps Appealing Claims by Sick Hanford Nuclear Site Workers — ProPublica

Toxic Legacy: Workers got sick cleaning up radioactive waste at a former federal nuclear weapons site in Washington, and the state passed a law to make it easier to claim benefits. 

Litigating Workers’ Claims: The Department of Energy denies responsibility and has filed more than 500 legal appeals seeking to block state benefits being given to workers and their survivors. 

Millions Go to Lawyers: DOE has spent nearly $12 million on outside lawyers and expert testimony to fight state compensation claims...

 https://www.propublica.org/article/hanford-nuclear-workers-compensation-washington-doe

 

Trump administration moves to curtail appeals by fired workers - The Washington Post

The legal arguments mark the latest effort by President Donald Trump to exert more control over independent agencies and remove protections for federal workers. The administration is now aiming to use the MSPB to assert that the presidential powers in the Constitution outrank the right to due process for workers, although the MSPB has previously said it lacks the statutory authority to consider constitutional claims. 

"The Trump administration's effort to assert control over the interpretations of the MSPB is alarming because the MSPB needs some degree of independence from the executive branch to fairly adjudicate the claims brought by federal employees," said Nick Bednar, a law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/29/trump-firings-appeals-merit-board/

US supreme court to hear case that could have dire consequences for death row inmates

…Swarns said that if Arizona prevails, "untold thousands of wrongfully convicted innocent people will be left in the nightmarish situation of having no court to whom they can turn for justice."…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/08/us-supreme-court-arizona-death-penalty-case