Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—following a lobbying offensive by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—recently announced that Senate Republicans’ top COVID-19 response priority is sweeping corporate immunity legislation that would make it nearly impossible to sue corporations for COVID-19-related legal claims by workers, consumers, or patients. Corporate immunity could give employers a free pass to flout worker safety laws, recklessly expose consumers to the virus, or ignore Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on stopping the spread of the coronavirus. On top of that, corporate special interests are also lobbying to get legal immunity from a wide range of critical worker protections, from minimum wage to disability rights laws. In other words, Senate Republicans are giving corporations a license to put workers and customers’ lives at risk.

Giving Corporations a License to Kill