In the case of National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Abner Morgan, Jr., 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). The court held that under Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), an employer can be held liable for employee injuries resulting from negligence but not for those caused by "the mere fact that work is hard." Mr. Morgan, a former Amtrak employee who had developed carpal tunnel syndrome due to his job duties as a laborer and welder's assistant, sued Amtrak claiming it was responsible for his condition because they failed to provide him with safe working conditions. However, the Supreme Court found no evidence proving that Amtrak acted negligently or knew about potential harm yet ignored it; therefore they were not liable under FELA.

In the dissenting opinion for National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Abner Morgan, Jr., Justice Ginsburg disagreed with the majority's interpretation of the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA). She argued that FELA should be interpreted broadly to protect workers and promote safety in line with its original intent. The majority’s decision, she believed, undermined this purpose by limiting an employer's liability only to situations where they had full control over a worker's actions leading to injury. This narrow reading could potentially exclude many scenarios where employers contribute significantly but not entirely to hazardous conditions causing injuries. Furthermore, she criticized the court for failing to defer sufficiently to jury findings on factual matters such as causation and negligence under FELA claims.