The Supreme Court sounded ready Tuesday to back the power of Congress to recruit and retain armed forces, in an oral argument that touched on the current conflict in Ukraine as an example of the unpredictable need to defend the nation.
The case centers on a federal law, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, that gives employment protections for military servicemembers who return from duty. The law includes the right to be promptly reemployed upon return from service and to be free from discrimination based on military service.
State courts in Texas, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Delaware and Alabama have ruled that Congress doesn’t have the power to give servicemembers the right to file civil lawsuits to enforce those protections against a state, unless that state has given its permission to be sued.
