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Workers' compensation fraud

Rydberg v. United States

Updated Nov 12, 2026

In brief

Where it stands
Petition Pending

Awaiting an order on the petition

No decision timeline until the Court agrees to hear the case.

What it’s about
Christopher Rydberg argues that the Fifth Circuit wrongly treated the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), a federal workers’ compensation law, as a “health care benefit program” under a federal criminal statute; he also asks the Supreme Court to reconsider Fifth Circuit precedent and clarify how courts should read unclear criminal laws.
What's at stake
The Supreme Court has not decided whether FECA falls within the federal criminal statute in Rydberg’s case.

Summary: written with AI from the case record.

What it's about

The Court distributed his petition for conference, but that is not a grant of review or a decision.

Rydberg also asks the Court to reconsider a Fifth Circuit precedent and clarify how courts should read unclear criminal laws.

Question presented

1. Whether the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), a federal workers’ compensation statute rather than a health insurance statute, qualifies as a “plan” or “contract” as those undefined operative terms appear in the definition of “health care benefit program” in 18 U.S.C. § 24(b). 2. Whether this Court should disapprove United States v. Anderson, 980 F.3d 423, 428 (5th Cir. 2020), which the Fifth Circuit panel applied by rote in petitioner’s case by uncritically giving “a broad meaning” to “health care benefit program” in 18 U.S.C. § 24(b)—without even mentioning the undefined key terms “plan” or “contract.”? 3. Whether this Court should grant certiorari to clarify the proper application of the rule of lenity to ambiguous criminal statutes in view of the conflicting approaches in this Court’s precedent. Compare, e.g., Wooden, 595 U.S. 360, 376-78 (2022) (Kavanaugh, J., concurring) (arguing in favor of a narrow approach to the rule of lenity and contending that “the rule of lenity has appropriately played only a very limited role in this Court’s criminal case law”), with id. at 388-97 (Gorsuch, J., concurring, joined by Sotomayor, J.) (arguing in favor of a broad approach to the rule of lenity and noting its application dating from the early decades of this country’s history).

What happens next

The Court must decide whether to hear the case. Its conference distribution for Dec. 4, 2026, does not guarantee a decision that day.

Documents

1

Docket activity

5
  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • AI analysis generated: Case Briefing

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Brief added: Petition

    Sep 30, 2026 · Court records

Sources

Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.

Checked Nov 12, 2026Methodology

Court records and filings

Reporting and analysis