Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined a multistate coalition backing a wounded Army veteran’s Supreme Court case against a military contractor whose alleged negligence led to a deadly Taliban bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
The case centers on former Army Specialist Winston Hencely, who was severely injured in 2016 when a Taliban-affiliated employee hired by Fluor Corporation detonated a bomb during a Veterans Day 5k run, killing five Americans and wounding sixteen others.
The bomber, employed by Fluor despite known terrorist connections, built the explosive using materials found on base while under the contractor’s supervision. An Army investigation concluded that “Fluor’s complacency and its lack of reasonable supervision” was the primary cause of the tragedy, according to a court filing.
Hencely sued Fluor under South Carolina law, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case. The court wrongly applied the Federal Tort Claims Act, which shields the government from combat-related lawsuits but explicitly excludes private contractors, according to a press release from Paxton’s office.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case this fall after Paxton and other state attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting Hencely.
“Our military servicemembers and their families deserve better than a system that gives corporate contractors a free pass,” Paxton said in the press release. “No contractor should be allowed to hide behind legal loopholes after their egregious negligence caused the death of five Americans and endangered many others.”
Paxton vowed to continue fighting what he called judicial overreach that protects corporations over accountability.
“I will continue to stand with Winston Hencely at the U.S. Supreme Court and fight against judicial overreach that protects careless corporations instead of holding them accountable,” he said.
While the Federal Tort Claims Act protects government actions during combat, Congress never intended to extend such protections to private companies profiting from military contracts.