In a recent Kentucky Supreme Court case, a majority of the Court declared that the way coal miners are required to prove their claims that they have pneumoconiosis, or "black lung" violated the Kentucky and United States consitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law. Peter Naake wrote a brief submitted on behalf of the United Mine Workers of America, the AFL-CIO, the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, and the Kentucky Workers' Association, as "friend of the Court". In Vision Mining v. Jesse Gardner, decided on December 22, 2011, the Court agreed with the miners and held that the means by which the coal miners were required to prove their claims, by allowing only x-ray readings and requiring a consensus of doctors opinions to prove that they had the disease, unfairly discriminated against them. Because other workers who are exposed to rock dust at work are not limited to this kind of proof, and are not required to convince a consensus panel of radiologists that they have the disease, miners are not given equal protection of the law. Because there is no rational basis for that distinction, the law is unconstitutional.
