Supreme Court Rejects Works Appeals Of Secret Airforce Base
Associated Press
Nov 8, 1998
Formatted By CammoDude
03-29-00
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WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court today turned away an appeal by workers at a top-secret Air Force base in Nevada who claim they and colleagues may have been exposed to extremely harmful levels of hazardous waste. The court, without comment, let stand rulings that threw out the lawsuit over the burning of toxic waste at Area 51, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The lawsuit was filed by five former or current workers at the facility, identified in court documents as ``five John Does,'' and Helen Frost and Stella Kasza, widows of two men who worked there. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling last January.
Invoking the legal privilege attached to state and military secrets, the appeals court said lawyers for the workers and widows are not entitled to learn what hazardous substances exist at Area 51 or how they are handled. The lawsuit against the Department of Defense and Environmental Protection Agency alleged that vast amounts of hazardous materials were burned illegally in huge open trenches. The lawsuit alleged that Mrs. Kasza's husband, Walter, died in 1995 of cancer that might have been the result of his employment. It also alleged that Mrs. Frost's husband, Robert, had suffered from a rare skin disease most likely caused by exposure to burning hazardous materials. The appeals court said results of a federal inspection and even the facility's name could not be disclosed as part of the pretrial exchange of information called discovery. The appeal acted on today, among other things, contended that such secrecy should not be able to defeat a lawsuit filed under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
The case is Kasza vs. Browner, 98-5405.
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