The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a lawsuit brought by a U.S. Army veteran injured in a Taliban suicide bombing to proceed, vacating a lower court dismissal. 

The plaintiff in the case, retired Army specialist Winston Tyler Hencely, sustained a fractured skull and brain injuries when the Taliban operative working for a military contractor detonated a suicide vest at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in 2016.

The high court's majority opinion was written by Justice Clarence Thomas, who rejected a broad "battlefield preemption" theory that blocks state-law claims tied to combat activities and wrote that military contractors are not automatically shielded from liability when their conduct was not authorized by the military – even in war zones, according to Fox News.  

Thomas was joined in the 6-3 ruling by fellow Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Thomas's opinion states that the operative was working for military contractor Fluor Corporation and that he executed the suicide-bomb attack at the airfield after Hencely confronted him and that the Army veteran is now permanently disabled. 

Thomas' opinion also states the high court vacates the Fourth Circuit Court's judgment and remands the case for further proceedings "consistent with this opinion."

The opinion also states that in Hencely's attempt to recover damages for his injuries, he sued Fluor "bringing state-law tort claims for negligently retaining and supervising the attacker. According to Hencely and the United States military, Fluor’s conduct was not authorized by the military and even violated instructions the military had given it as a condition of operating on the base."

Justice Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented, also according to Fox News.