Tyson Foods shouldn’t be liable for COVID-19 deaths in its plants because it was under orders from then-President Trump to keep them open, the company is arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tyson’s writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to interpose itself in a non-federal case, comes in connection with wrongful-death lawsuits filed by the families of four former Tyson workers who died of COVID. The families sued in Iowa state court, and Tyson tried to get the case moved to the federal system on the grounds that the federal government had directed meat processing plants to stay open. That argument was accepted by a federal district court but reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; Tyson is trying to get the Supreme Court to reverse the reversal.
Tyson argues that Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly stated that it was vital for meat processing plants to stay open: “[T]he federal government was directing Tyson to continue to produce food to keep grocery stores nationwide stocked.” The plaintiffs counter that no food processors received any sort of direct order from the federal government to stay open, and that Tyson was not acting under federal authority when it decided to keep its plants running.
