Image: The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit against the private prison contractor, GEO Group, can proceed to trial. | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

A long-running lawsuit claiming that a private prison contractor broke federal and Colorado law by forcing immigration detainees to work moved closer to trial Wednesday after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a bid by the company to toss out the case.

The contractor, GEO Group, asserted it was entitled to immunity and should not face a civil trial because the firm’s detainee work policies were carried out at the direction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, the justices said the degree to which federal officials authorized the detention center’s work program was an issue that could be hashed out at trial.

“If eventually found liable, GEO may of course appeal,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court’s majority. “But GEO must wait until then.”

The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2014, focused on practices at GEO’s facility in Aurora, Colorado. Immigration detainees there were required to clean all common areas and faced possible solitary confinement for failing to comply. They were offered $1 a day for work preparing food and cleaning laundry at a time when the state’s minimum wage was $8 an hour.

The civil lawsuit alleges that the arrangement violated a federal law prohibiting forced labor and, because the policies saved labor costs for GEO, ran afoul of a Colorado common-law prohibition on unjust enrichment.

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