In the case of Myra Jo Collins v. City of Harker Heights, Texas (1991), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a city's failure to provide its employees with certain protections does not constitute a violation of their substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The case was brought by Myra Jo Collins, whose husband died from asphyxiation while working for the city’s sanitation department in an underground sewer line without proper safety equipment or training on potential hazards. She argued that her husband's employer had shown "deliberate indifference" to his safety and thus violated his constitutional rights. However, the court held that such claims must be based on established state law rather than federal constitutional law and dismissed her claim against Harker Heights.

In the dissenting opinion for Myra Jo Collins v. City of Harker Heights, Texas, Justice Blackmun argued that the majority's decision to dismiss Mrs. Collins' claim was a misinterpretation of her complaint and an overly narrow view of substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. He believed that Mrs. Collins had presented sufficient evidence to suggest that her husband's death resulted from more than just negligence on part of his employer (the city), but rather from a "deliberate indifference" towards employee safety which could constitute a violation of Mr.Collins’ constitutional rights. The justice contended that public employers should not be immune from liability in cases where they knowingly expose their employees to significant health and safety risks without adequate precautions or training, as alleged in this case.