WLF Urges Supreme Court to Reverse Fifth Circuit’s Narrow Reading of Federal-Officer Removal Statute

“The Fifth Circuit’s ruling undermines Congress’s intent to provide federal contractors with a federal forum to resolve disputes related to federal projects.”

—Cory L. Andrews, WLF General Counsel & Vice President of Litigation

Click here for WLF’s brief.

(Washington, DC)—Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that narrowly interprets the federal-officer removal statute, denying federal contractors access to federal courts. As WLF explains in its amicus brief, the Fifth Circuit’s ruling contradicts the statute’s text and purpose, exposing contractors to state-court bias. Atlantic Legal Foundation joined WLF on the brief.

The case stems from a lawsuit by Louisiana and two parishes seeking to hold oil-and-gas companies liable under state law for World War II-era crude oil production. The Fifth Circuit rejected the defendants’ attempt to remove the case to federal court, ruling that their oil production did not “relate to” their federal contracts for aviation gasoline because those contracts lacked specific directives on production.

In its amicus brief, WLF argues that the Fifth Circuit’s contractual-direction requirement revives a discarded causal-nexus test and upends the broad “relating to” standard that Congress established in 2011. The defendants’ production, tied to federal wartime needs through pricing, tax exemptions, and allocations, clearly meets this standard. To safeguard federal interests and uphold congressional intent, WLF’s brief urges the Court to ensure that federal contractors can access a neutral federal forum when defending against state suits.