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Retirees appeal former spouse law again

A group of divorced military retirees seeking to overturn a law that allows military retired pay to be divided as marital property in divorce cases has appealed its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 58 military retirees are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the 25-year-old Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act. Their attorneys filed their petition with the Supreme Court Feb. 12, but the group did not announce the filing until Feb. 19.

The retirees, part of the USFSPA Litigation Support Group, first filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in April 2004. Their request was denied by that court. A subsequent appeal to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals also was denied in November 2006.

The retirees contend that the Former Spouses’ Protection Act runs counter to a 1981 Supreme Court ruling that military retired pay is a “personal entitlement not subject to state community property laws,” said attorney Jonathan L. Katz, in a statement announcing the retirees’ appeal.

The Former Spouses’ Protection Act was passed after the 1981 ruling, and it does not state how the retired pay should be divided, leaving that to state courts. Advocates for divorced military spouses have noted that all other retired pay — to include that drawn by retired FBI agents, police officers and others — is considered marital property in divorce cases.

The Supreme Court generally takes about six weeks to decide whether it will review a case.

More than 8,000 cases are filed with the Court each term, according to its Web site, and of those, only about 100 are granted review, argued and decided by written opinion.