State Files Motion Defending Hanford Worker Presumption Law

Washington state has fired back against a lawsuit claiming the state unfairly discriminated against the U.S. Department of Energy by enacting a law to create a presumption that certain cancers and other diseases among Hanford nuclear site workers are work-related. In a motion and request for summary judgment filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, the state disputes the federal government’s claims that the presumption violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Congress specifically authorized states to provide workers’ compensation ...