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First USERRA case to go before Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear its first-ever case involving an alleged violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

Army Reserve Sgt. Vincent Staub claimed that Proctor Hospital, of Peoria, Ill., violated his rights under USERRA when it fired him from his job as an angiography technologist in April 2004. He contended that the reasons given for the firing — insubordination, shirking and attitude problems — were a pretext for discrimination based on his military duties.

Staub won his case in the U.S. District Court for the central District of Illinois, when the jury found that the firing was motivated at least in part by his military service. But he lost when Proctor Hospital appealed the decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

In its ruling, the appeals court stated: “The question for us is whether a reasonable jury could have concluded that Staub was fired because he was a member of the military. To that question, the answer is no.”

The Reserve Officers Association “is pleased to see this important issue being taken up by the Supreme Court,” retired Rear Adm. Paul Kayye, ROA’s president, said in an April 22 statement about the court’s April 19 decision to hear the case.

“USERRA is a critical law for service members, their families, and employers. It ensures America’s citizen warriors are not adversely affected by their service, and employers have the legal support they need to employ our reservists and Guardsmen.”

ROA will file a brief with the Supreme Court in support of Staub. ROA contends the appeals court’s decision is “contrary to the Supreme Court’s commandment to construe the reemployment statue liberally for the benefit of those who have laid aside their civilian pursuits to serve their country,” according to the announcement.

“We believe that the panel cherry-picked certain evidence that seemed to support the employer’s arguments, rather than viewing the evidence as a whole, as the jury did and the law requires,” said retired Navy Capt. Sam Wright, director of ROA’s Servicemembers’ Law Center, in the announcement.

In passing USERRA in 1994, Congress revamped the Veterans’ Reemployment Rights Act, which can be traced back to 1940, ROA said. The Supreme Court heard 16 cases under VRRA.