By Chad Lampe
Murray, KY – The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that the state's stringent medical screening process for coal miners to receive worker's compensation violates their constitutional rights. The ruling speaks specifically to miners suffering from black lung disease. A divided high court concluded yesterday that a state law requiring miners to undergo a litany of tests that workers in other occupations aren't subjected to runs afoul of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law. In a 34-page decision written by Justice Will T. Scott, the high court found no "rational basis and justifiable reason for the disparate treatment of coal workers." Kentucky, one of the nation's top coal-producing states, has a stringent black lung law that makes it difficult for sick miners to qualify for workers compensation.