GEO Group’s effort to move its case faster through the courts was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling issued Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. The decision came in an immigration-detention lawsuit that alleges GEO’s Colorado facility required detainees to perform unpaid work and receive low pay in exchange for basic meals.
In the case at issue, detainees allege that GEO’s practices in Aurora involved janitorial work and other jobs, and that detainees were paid about $1 a day as a way to supplement meager meals, the AP reported. GEO Group has defended its practices, according to the report, and argued that the company should be immune from the lawsuit because it contracted with the government.
After a judge disagreed with GEO’s immunity argument, the company asked the Supreme Court for permission to pursue a quick appeal. The justices refused that request, leaving the dispute to proceed through the ordinary steps of lower-court litigation rather than being accelerated through the Supreme Court at that stage, the AP said.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that if GEO is eventually found liable, the company could appeal later. Kagan’s opinion also said GEO must wait, invoking what the court described as a “one case, one appeal” principle that applies to other litigants as well, the AP reported.
The Supreme Court ruling was unanimous as to the procedural outcome, with all nine justices agreeing on rejecting GEO’s bid to take up the case at that point. The AP reported that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito differed on the reasoning, even though they joined the bottom-line outcome.
An attorney for the Colorado detainees, Jennifer Bennett, applauded the decision. Bennett said the ruling reaffirmed a straightforward rule that government contractors such as GEO do not qualify for sovereign immunity and must follow the same “one case, one appeal” approach that governs other litigants, according to the AP.
The GEO Group is a Florida-based private detention provider, with management or ownership of about 77,000 beds at 98 facilities, the AP reported. The company’s contracts include a federal immigration detention center where Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at a protest in May 2025, the AP said; the report also noted that the case against the mayor was later dropped.
The AP said other lawsuits alleging similar forced-labor treatment by immigration detainees have been brought against GEO Group in other states. One such case was in Washington state, where the company was ordered to pay more than $23 million, the report said.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Colorado matter did not resolve whether GEO violated the detainees’ rights on the merits. It instead focused on the procedural posture of GEO’s immunity argument and the company’s request to bypass the usual path for appellate review, leaving the underlying allegations to be addressed in the lower courts as the case continues.