Courts

Go Army, Beat Opposing Counsel?

Ready! Aim! Litigate!

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Many green army plastic toy soldiers organized on top of a white surface and background, isolated, with out of focus plastic soldiers in the backgroundAs some kind of historian, I’ve been interested in the myriad ways the military pops up in unexpected places. Sometimes they show up in places in dire need of democracy that just happen to have oil. Sometimes they show up in sports stadiums. My personal favorite is the Army v. Navy beef that has reached meme status:

But the unexpected pop-up spot that has some of the largest legal consequence? The Supreme Court. From USA Today:

Some of the biggest issues to come before the Supreme Court in recent weeks – from affirmative action to LGBTQ rights – have featured a common theme on their dockets: They’ve drawn the interest of groups with ties to the military.

In a high-profile battle over a graphic designer who wants to decline to make websites for same-sex weddings, a group representing LGBTQ servicemembers fears the court’s decision could harm gay and lesbian families assigned to bases in rural America. In a case about states’ power to set election rules, a group of retired generals and admirals is worried about “civil unrest” in contested elections “leading to military intervention.”

Now those are some oral arguments I’d like to sit in on. In cases where the military is not a named party in the litigation, they’ve made their presence known through amicus briefs.

[Carter] Phillips’ brief, filed on behalf of retired military leaders like Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Gen. Wesley Clark, argued a lack of diversity in the officer corps harmed the military during the Vietnam era. The best solution, the retired leaders said, was to promote diversity at the service academies and higher education generally.

The 5-4 majority cited the brief in its opinion.

“It was an extraordinary story that was true,” Phillips said. “I think it caught a number of the justices a little off guard because it wasn’t a story anybody had told before.”

In talks with a focus on CMR (Civilian Military Relations), one of the standbys is to mention that the military was one of the first government bodies to desegregate. Given that, it isn’t too surprising to know that military interests still stand in matters of affirmative action, voting rights, and marriage equality.

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Military Interests Parachute Into Supreme Court Cases On LGBTQ Rights, Elections [USA Today]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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