Armed Forces: They'd Rather Sue Than Fight

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Every military outfit has its G.I. lawyer, learned in the lore of a soldier's real or imaginary rights. But when 38,037 Army, Navy and Air Force reservists were called to active duty last January, after North Korea seized U.S.S. Pueblo, their ranks included some professional attorneys. And as the Pueblo crisis dwindled, the reservists' discontent rose. After the Pentagon began shipping some of them off to Viet Nam, the brass was peppered with a rapid fire of writs from soldiers who would rather sue than fight.

It was U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, vacationing near Goose Prairie, Wash., who first sent agley the Army's well-laid plans for dispatching reluctant reservists off to war. Douglas ordered the Pentagon to delay the departure to Viet Nam of 113 reservists attached to a supply company stationed at Fort Meade, Md. The group asked the full court to rule on the President's constitutional right to call them up in the first place. They will now remain in the U.S. until next month, when the court will determine whether it wants to hear their case.

The reservists argue that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in 1966 when it passed a law authorizing the President to mobilize part of the Ready Reserve when there was no national emergency or formal declaration of war by Congress. Even if the law is not unconstitutional, the protesters claim that they are not covered by it because they joined the Reserves before it was passed.

Reservists across the U.S. have eagerly followed Fort Meade's suit. Using similar arguments, lawyers last week were busy appealing their way to the Supreme Court on behalf of 13 members of an Army postal unit and 83 logistics troopers at Fort Lee, Va., and 23 finance clerks at Fort Benning, Ga. At Fort Riley, Kans., soldiers belonging to a reserve warehousing unit hired a lawyer to try to block their departure to Viet Nam. A suit filed in Federal Court in Hawaii earlier this month has added a new twist. Lawyers for 257 soldiers of the 29th Infantry Brigade are also demanding $10,000 damages for each man as compensation for alleged illegal detention at arms.