(CNN)The US Supreme Court said in a 5-4 ruling Wednesday that state agencies are not immune from private lawsuits under a federal law meant to protect employment rights of returning veterans.

The ruling will strengthen work protections for thousands of state-employed veterans returning to work after service in the Reserves or National Guard.

The outcome is a victory for Le Roy Torres, a veteran and former employee of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He told the agency that he could no longer serve as a state trooper and sought a comparable job to accommodate his service-related disability. When he was denied the job, he filed suit under federal law but lost in state courts. He appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, joined by the other liberals as well as Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Texas had argued that states are immune from such lawsuits brought under the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, passed under Congress' war powers authority. The law was enacted to ensure that those who serve aren't disadvantaged when they return to the work force with a service-related disability.

Breyer said that "upon entering the Union," the states "implicitly agreed that their sovereignty would yield to federal policy to build and keep a national military."

And emphasizing Congress' war powers authority, he noted that "Congress has broad and sweeping power to raise...

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