XPost: soc.veterans, alt.politics.republicans, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: invalid@dont-email.me   
      
   In article    
    wrote:   
      
   A former Texas state trooper and veteran will be able to   
   continue with his wrongful termination case after the Supreme   
   Court ruled in his favor on Wednesday over claims he was forced   
   out of his job when he returned from Army service in Iraq.   
      
   The justices ruled in a 5-4 vote that Army veteran Le Roy   
   Torres’ rights to employment were under a federal law that was   
   enacted in 1994 in the wake of the Persian Gulf War for   
   returning service members.   
      
   "I'm beyond thrilled and thankful that the Supreme Court agrees   
   with our position and upheld the rights of service members like   
   myself," Torres told Fox News in an interview after receiving   
   news of the ruling. "You come back from war, and you think your   
   job is protected."   
      
   He went on, "Today's vote brings a sense of peace and some type   
   of closure for me, as well as the things that I've been dealing   
   with for these four or five years with my job loss."   
      
   The service member claimed he was forced to resign from his post   
   as a state trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety   
   (DPS). His ouster came after he was experiencing the effects of   
   extensive lung damage he developed after his exposure to burn   
   pits while serving as a U.S. Army reservist in Balad, Iraq.   
      
   Torres first filed a lawsuit against the DPS and the state of   
   Texas back in February 2017, claiming his worker rights under   
   the Uniformed Services and Employment and Reemployment Rights   
   Act of 1994 (USERRA), a federal statute strengthening job   
   protections for service members, were violated. The state   
   countered his claims and argued in court that Texas had   
   sovereign immunity from lawsuits like Torres' and his case had   
   been stalled in the Texas courts ever since.   
      
   "It was just this moment of restoration for us, a moment of   
   hope." Leroy’s wife, Rosie Torres, told Fox News. "The SCOTUS   
   decision gave us a piece of our life back today, and I feel not   
   just for us, for our family, but for the thousands of families   
   waiting on this decision with Leroy's case."   
      
   The high court rejected Texas' claim that it's shielded from   
   such lawsuits.   
      
   "Text, history, and precedent show that the States, in coming   
   together to form a Union, agreed to sacrifice their sovereign   
   immunity for the good of the common defense," Justice Stephen   
   Breyer wrote for the court.   
      
   Torres was called up for duty from the reserves in 2007 while   
   serving as a trooper in the Lone Star State. It was during that   
   time that he was exposed to burn pits at his base in Balad. The   
   pits were often used across many U.S. military bases across Iraq   
   and Afghanistan during the wars as a crude method of   
   incineration in which every piece of waste generated on the base   
   was burned, including plastics, batteries, appliances, medicine,   
   dead animals and even human waste.   
      
   The items were often set ablaze with jet fuel as the accelerant   
   with over 1,000 different chemical compounds burning into the   
   air, day and night.   
      
   Torres returned home to Texas in 2007 and resumed his duty as a   
   state trooper a year later, after an honorable discharge from   
   military service. It was around that time that he also started   
   feeling the effects of his burn pit exposure.   
      
   The veteran claimed it was during that time when he started   
   waking up with debilitating headaches that often lasted   
   throughout the day.   
      
   It was while he was chasing a suspect during the summer of 2009   
   that Torres realized something was truly wrong with his health.   
      
   "I was in a lot of pain with chest pressure. I was afraid that I   
   was having a stroke and I had no backup until like 10 minutes   
   later," Torres told Fox News back in March. "I felt really   
   horrible that day, and that's when I knew that there was   
   something going on."   
      
   The trooper started calling out sick, unable to perform his   
   patrol duties. Torres was experiencing a myriad of symptoms   
   including debilitating headaches, vertigo, and a persistent,   
   unforgiving cough.   
      
   He eventually learned his exposure to those burn pits at his   
   base in Balad had led to toxic brain injury and several lung   
   ailments.   
      
   Once diagnosed, Torres said he returned to his commanding   
   officers at DPS and informed them that he wanted to return to   
   work but that due to his condition he could no longer go on   
      
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