High Court backs Texas state trooper disabled by military service

WASHINGTON (CN) — Ruling for an injured veteran who says Texas trampled his rights, the Supreme Court reminded the state on Wednesday that ratifying the U.S. Constitution came with a cost.

“Upon entering the Union, the States implicitly agreed that their sovereignty would yield to federal policy to build and keep a national military,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the 5-4 majority. “States thus gave up their immunity from congressionally authorized suits pursuant to the ‘plan of the Convention,’ as part of ‘the structure of the original Constitution itself.’”

The case stems from huge open-air pits that the United States built in Iraq and Afghanistan to burn everything from trash and ammunition to medicine and human waste. These trenches — which became known as burn pits — would burn for 24 hours a day, exposing American soldiers to black smoke containing toxic fumes. Le Roy Torres is one of these soldiers.

After being exposed to burn pits during his deployment in Iraq in the Army Reserve, Torres developed lung damage and was honorably discharged. Torres planned on going back to his job at the Texas Department of Public Safety, only to find that he could no longer perform the duties of a state trooper because of injuries from his service. Texas refused to give Torres another position and told him he would be fired if he did not report to duty as a state trooper.



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