WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against a private prison company facing a lawsuit alleging immigration detainees were forced to work and paid only $1 a day in Colorado.
The unanimous ruling is a procedural defeat for the GEO Group, but it's not a final decision. The company is fighting a lawsuit from 2014 alleging detainees in Aurora had to perform unpaid janitorial work and other jobs for little pay to supplement meager meals.
GEO defended its practices and argued that the case should be tossed out because it's immune from lawsuits as a government contractor.
After a judge disagreed, the company asked the Supreme Court to allow it to quickly appeal the ruling. But the justices refused.
“If eventually found liable, GEO may of course appeal ... but GEO must wait until then,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote. All nine justices agreed with the outcome, but two justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, differed on the reasoning.
An attorney who argued for the Colorado detainees applauded the ruling. “The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision reaffirms a straightforward rule: government contractors like GEO do not qualify for sovereign immunity and must follow the same ‘one case, one appeal’ principle that governs every other litigant," Jennifer Bennett said.
The Florida-based GEO Group is one of the top private detention providers in the country, with management or ownership of about 77,000 beds at 98 facilities. Its contracts include a new federal immigration detention center where Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at a protest in May 2025, before the case against the Democrat was dropped.
Similar lawsuits have been brought on behalf of immigration detainees elsewhere, including a case in Washington state, where the company was ordered to pay more than $23 million.
Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia freed and deported an American man Tuesday after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then-girlfriend’s mother on the island of Bali, but he's still on the hook for federal charges back home.
Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, a wealthy Chicago socialite, during a luxury vacation. The case became known as the Bali “ suitcase murder ” because her battered body was found in a suitcase in the trunk of a taxi at an upscale resort.
The couple was trying to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund, prosecutors have said, with Heather Mack covering her 62-year-old mother’s mouth while Schaefer bludgeoned her with a fruit bowl. Police in Bali arrested Mack, nearly 19 at the time and a few weeks pregnant, and the then-21-year-old Schaefer a day later.
Schaefer was deported Tuesday evening back to the United States from Bali International Airport after serving his sentence and receiving a number of remissions for good behavior, said Felucia Sengky Ratna, head of the Bali Regional Office of the Directorate General of Immigration, in a statement.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, which transports federal prisoners, confirmed Schaefer was in custody and arrived in Illinois on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the FBI handled his movement.
Schaefer was scheduled to make an initial court appearance in Chicago on Thursday morning on federal charges of conspiracy to kill someone in a foreign country, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with a victim.
Schaefer's lawyer in the U.S. case, Chicago-based Thomas Durkin, died last year. Court records on Wednesday showed a new attorney, Matthew Madden, also of Chicago, is now representing him. Madden did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Mack served seven years of a 10-year prison sentence in Bali for helping to kill her mother and was deported in October 2021.
She was also sentenced to 26 years in prison in Chicago in January 2024, after she pleaded guilty to helping kill her mother and stuffing the body in the suitcase.
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.
FILE - Tommy Schaefer of Chicago, Ill., who alongwith his girlfriend Heather Mack is accused of murdering Mack's mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack whose body was later found in a suitcase, arrives for his trial hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Jan. 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
FILE - In this March 12, 2015 file photo, Heather Mack, left, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, both from Chicago, Ill., who are accused of of murdering Mack's mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack whose body was later found in a suitcase, enter the court room prior to the start of their trial hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati, File)
