WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court will hold a private conference Thursday to consider whether the case of a fired Texas state trooper merits adding to its docket due to the larger question it raises: Does a state’s sovereignty outweigh federal powers to build armies?
The case of LeRoy Torres v. The Texas Department of Public Safety involves a 14-year Texas state trooper who deployed to Balad, Iraq, in 2007 with the Army National Guard. Torres says he spent a year there inhaling toxic air from the base’s massive open-air trash burning pits.
He was among more than 200,000 other service members who served near burn pits during war operations in the Middle East and have reported respiratory illnesses, cancers and other chronic illnesses.
