Should federal law protect defense contractors from facing lawsuits over alleged failures to prevent a terrorist attack?
That’s a question the Supreme Court is expected to take up on Nov. 3 when the justices hear oral argument in Hencely v. Fluor Corporation.
In 2016, an Afghan man named Ahmad Nayeb detonated a suicide bomb vest at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, killing five and wounding many others.
Nayeb was an employee of a subcontractor for Fluor Corporation, whose failures the Army blamed as “the primary contributing factor” to the bombing.
Fluor Corporation has denied liability.
According to court papers, Nayeb was able to construct his bomb on the military base while using the contractor’s own tools and components….