GEO Group’s $1-a-Day Pay Appeal Nixed on Jurisdiction Grounds

GEO Group Inc. acted too soon in appealing a lower court decision blocking it from claiming a derivative sovereign immunity defense in immigrant detainees’ human trafficking suit, the Tenth Circuit said Tuesday.

The private prison operator contends a lower court erred in siding with the civil detainees and rejecting GEO’s claim its government contracts give it a derivative sovereign immunity shield from being sued. But there’s no jurisdiction to hear an appeal on that argument before the rest of the case concludes, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion.

The question of ...