https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1389211406290100237?s=20Petitioner alleges that she was raped by a fellow cadet while she was a student at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. She sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, claiming that West Point’s sexual assault policies were inadequate to protect students from sexual violence. Under the plain text of the Act, petitioner’s status as a West Point cadet should have posed no bar to litigation. But 70 years ago, this Court made the policy judgment that members of the military should not be able to sue for inju- ries incident to military service. See Feres v. United States, 340 U. S. 135 (1950). Relying on Feres, the Second Circuit held that sovereign immunity barred petitioner’s claims, even if she could have brought these same claims had she been a civilian contractor employed by West Point instead of a student.
...Perhaps the Court is hesitant to take up this issue at all because it would require fiddling with a 70-year-old precedent that is demonstrably wrong. But if the Feres doctrine is so wrong that we cannot figure out how to rein it in, then the better answer is to bid it farewell. There is precedent for that approach.
https://t.co/3pwQKCLtzp? (pdf pg 9)
