WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Wednesday that federal employees who also are in the military reserve must be paid the equivalent of their civilian salaries when called to active duty during national emergencies.
The 5-4 decision could affect hundreds of thousands of people, insuring that they don’t suffer financially when they temporarily leave one form of government service for another.
The justices ruled in an appeal filed by an air traffic controller who spent about five years on active duty in the Coast Guard at a pay rate lower than what he earns as a Federal Aviation Administration employee.
Congress first adopted a differential pay statute in 2009, but the Justice Department argued that it only applied to people whose service had a strong connection to a national emergency.
The majority disagreed, finding that any reservist who is called to active duty during a national emergency bolsters the country’s defenses and their salary should match what they would have made in their federal civilian jobs. Gorsuch was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts.
In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas pointed out that the country has been under one national emergency or another for decades and the majority’s finding will create wider access to differential pay than Congress intended. Thomas wrote that he would have instead sent the case back to a lower court. He was joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.