On June 29, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that a veteran could sue his former employer, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) after the DPS would not accommodate his medical conditions by employing him in a different role. In a 5-4 decision, the Court in Torres v. Texas Department of Public Safety ruled that state employers cannot invoke sovereign immunity as a defense to suits brought under USERRA. This is an important decision for the many state employers across the country that employ veterans.
USERRA protects military service members and veterans from employment discrimination on the basis of their service and allows them to regain their civilian employment following a period of uniformed service. To invoke USERRA’s protections, if the employer is the state rather than a private employer, the employee may sue in federal court only if, after filing a complaint with the Secretary of Labor, the Department of Justice (DOJ) decides to file suit against the state in the name of the United States. If the DOJ declines to take on the case, USERRA permits the employee to bring action “in a State court of competent jurisdiction in accordance with the laws of the State.”
Le Roy Torres is an Army Reservist who mobilized and deployed to Iraq in 2007. While there, Torres developed constructive bronchitis due to exposure to toxic burn pits. Upon his...
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