Man Fights State Exemption of Comp for Ag Workers

Most states provide that workers' compensation coverage is not required for all agricultural workers. But only in New Mexico has such an exclusion been overturned as unconstitutional. Now, a South Dakota circuit judge is considering the claim of Troy Bangtson, who has challenged the denial of his workers’ comp claim on multiple grounds, including that the state's law exempting agricultural workers from comp coverage is unconstitutional. In 2015, a New Mexico court found that that state’s law, which also exempted comp coverage for agricultural workers at all...