Washington (AP) -Monday’s Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from a woman who said she had been raped as a West Point cadet, arguing that only Judge Clarence Thomas should have heard her case.
A woman attending the U.S. Military Academy from 2008 to 2010 complained that the Academy’s leadership tolerated a culture of hostility towards women, and in particular failed to adequately support cadets who were assaulted. .. However, a lower court said her proceedings against the US government could not proceed.
Thomas Disputed and said The High Court said the proceedings should have been filed to reconsider the 70-year-old case that prevented military personnel from suing the United States when injured on duty.
This is the second time he has noticed his disagreement when the court refused to revisit the matter. Thomas says the court’s decision decades ago had strange and surprising results, including excluding the case of a former cadet.
“In our precedent, if two Pentagon employees (one civilian and one military) were accused of being attacked by a bus in a Pentagon parking lot, only civilians would make his claim about the proposal. You may have the opportunity to sue. Thomas wrote a three-page dissenting opinion.
In the West Point case, lower courts stated that women’s allegations were banned by the so-called Ferres doctrine, which derives from the 1950 Supreme Court case. In it, the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Tort Claims Act does not give military members the ability to sue the United States for “caused or active” injuries from their active service. army.
Thomas writes: As a result, the proceeding was erroneously decided. Thomas cites one reason why the court may not want to address this issue.
“Probably because we need to mess with a 70-year-old case that is clearly wrong, the court is hesitant to take up this issue. But Ferres’ doctrine is so wrong that there is a way to curb it. If you don’t know, a better answer is to say goodbye, “he writes. Thomas overturned about half a dozen court precedents, including the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education case that outlawed racism in public schools and overturned the court’s Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. Quoted.
Some liberals are particularly concerned that the court will agree to review the case. They are concerned that a court, now including six conservatives and three liberals, could revisit and overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. Thomas had previously stated in the court that “the abortion case is terribly wrong and should be dismissed.”
But in 2019, both liberal Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and conservative Thomas Shown They wanted to rethink the doctrine of Ferres. They said they would have involved an incident involving Navy Lieutenant Rebeka Daniel, who gave birth at a naval hospital and died of complications. Her husband was forbidden to file a proceeding because of Ferres’ doctrine. Ginsburg was then replaced by Judge Amy Coney Barrett in court.
The Biden administration has asked the court not to file the West Point case. He said legislation could be changed to allow proceedings currently prohibited by Ferres doctrine if Congress so desires.