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douglas9

(4,474 posts)
Wed Jun 29, 2022, 11:45 AM Jun 2022

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.



https://www.courthousenews.com/high-court-backs-texas-state-trooper-disabled-by-military-service/





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High Court backs Texas state trooper disabled by military service (Original Post) douglas9 Jun 2022 OP
Excellent. TwilightZone Jun 2022 #1
Finally snowybirdie Jun 2022 #2

TwilightZone

(28,833 posts)
1. Excellent.
Wed Jun 29, 2022, 11:53 AM
Jun 2022

I was really worried about this case. Score one for doing what's right, in the midst of so much that is wrong.

It's also cool that Breyer got to write an opinion on a sovereign immunity case as his career comes to a close.

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