Thursday, June 11, 2009
Cory Bertrand joined the Army at 17 and was killed in Afghanistan at 18
Fed up with the recruitment of teenagers by the military, residents of two Northern California cities overwhelmingly adopted a measure last November that prohibits such activity within their city limits. The federal government objected to the passage of the Youth Protection Act in Eureka and Arcata, and challenged the measure in federal court. That case began trial on Tuesday, and even though the odds are long that the two municipalities will prevail in their fight, they are receiving some free, high-powered legal help.
The San Francisco law firm of Minami and Tamaki, representing the city of Arcata pro-bono, has challenged the legal authority of the federal government before. In 1983, the firm represented Fred Korematsu, who sued the U.S. government over his conviction in 1944 for refusing to be interned with other Japanese Americans during World War II. Minami and Tamaki ultimately won that lawsuit, which led to Congress agreeing to pay reparations to surviving Japanese Americans and their families who were forced to live in internment camps.
The firm admits it is likely to lose its case against the U.S. Department of Justice, which claims the local ordinance violates the federal government’s authority to maintain the national defense. But that hasn’t stopped lawyers for the defendants from using a novel approach to demonstrate how the federal government is in violation of international law with its recruitment of young men and women, which often begins when they are under the age of 17. The United States ratified an international treaty in 2002 that prohibits children younger than 17 from being recruited, trained or used in any armed forces.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Youth Protection Act to Get Day in Court (by Thadeus Greenson, Humboldt County Times-Standard)
The Recruiter Handbook (Chapter 9) (United States Army Recruiting Command) (PDF)
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