Roman Gonzales worked as a Security Police Officer for Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, the Department of Energy contractor managing the laboratory where the federal government stores spent nuclear fuel, for more than a decade before his January 2019 termination. He had disclosed throughout his tenure that he used prescription opioids for a chronic back injury, and Battelle accommodated him on the condition that he not take the medication within eight hours of a shift.

That arrangement changed in late 2017, when a new program physician raised concerns about his medication use and a licensed clinical social worker found him unreliable during a psychological evaluation. Battelle temporarily suspended his Human Reliability Program certification and later revoked his Section 1046 fitness-for-duty certification, a DOE requirement for security personnel.

Gonzales sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, alleging race and disability discrimination, retaliation, and unlawful disclosure of confidential medical information under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A jury found for him on his retaliation and "regarded as" disability discrimination claims, and rejected his race discrimination, unlawful medical disclosure, and denial of reasonable accommodation claims.

On appeal, Battelle argued that the revocation of the fitness-for-duty certification was a nonjusticiable national security determination shielded under the Supreme Court's 1988 decision in Department of Navy v. Egan.

Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Morgan B. Christen held that the Section 1046 certification was subject to judicial review because its medical and physical standards were not tied to the predictive security determinations that Egan protects. Judge Christen wrote that Egan insulated from judicial review decisions concerned with the risk that individuals granted access to sensitive information may disseminate that information, not review of certificates concerned with whether employees are physically or psychologically capable of performing their jobs.

The panel distinguished Section 1046 from the DOE's Human Reliability Program, which involves counterintelligence evaluations, polygraph tests, and annual reliability reviews with final authority reserved to the DOE. Section 1046, by contrast, establishes physical benchmarks including hearing, vision, cardiovascular health, and a half-mile run with a maximum qualifying time of four minutes and forty seconds. The regulation expressly incorporates the ADA's reasonable accommodation requirements.

The panel also noted that Battelle had only temporarily suspended Gonzales's HRP certification and never referred the matter to the DOE for a final determination as required by regulation.

The ruling aligns the Ninth Circuit with the Sixth Circuit's 2016 decision in Hale v. Johnson, which rejected a similar Egan-based argument by the employer of a nuclear plant security officer.

Circuit Judges Carlos T. Bea and Roopali H. Desai joined Judge Christen's opinion. The case was argued February 4, 2026, in Portland, Oregon.