Saturday, April 16, 2022

Veterans on the Supreme Court: now there will be only one

Matthew N. Preston, an Army veterans who is clerking on a federal district court, says in USA Today that it's a bad thing for there to be so few veterans on the Supreme Court. (When Justice Stephen Breyer retires at the end of the Term, the only one left will be Justice Samuel Alito.) He writes:

Having no veterans on the Supreme Court would omit viewpoints grounded in core military values. In reviewing Supreme Court opinions, I found that veterans on the court often invoked military values of "integrity" and "respect." For example, numerous articles cited Justice Anthony Kennedy's repeated appeals to these values, not only in his chambers and among his colleagues, but also for the cases before him and the people involved.

He asks: "Will the next Supreme Court justice be a veteran, or is the court on the verge of becoming a nonveteran echo chamber for years, perhaps decades, to come?"

Echo chamber? Viewpoints grounded in core military values?

FWIW, Justice Kennedy served in the California Army National Guard in 1961-62. Justice Alito went through ROTC at Princeton and served on active duty for three months after law school. Justice Breyer served on active duty for six months, also followed by reserve time.

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