Sandra Day O'Connor has refused to issue an injunction that would have kept Emiliano Santiago, an Oregon National Guardsman,
from being deployed to Afghanistan:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by an Oregon National Guardsman to halt his deployment to Afghanistan.
Emiliano Santiago, 27, an electronics technician and a helicopter refueler now living in Pasco, Wash., fought plans to ship him out because his eight-year service agreement expired last year. His lawyers say Santiago is the victim of a "backdoor draft."
Santiago's contract with the Oregon National Guard was to expire in June 2004. Just prior to that date, Santiago's contract was involuntarily extended until 2031 and he was given orders to deploy to Afghanistan.
I posted a diary about Santiago's appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
yesterday. According to the Seattle Times, the court rejected Santiago's request for an injunction to deployment and his assertion that the Army broke its contract with him by involuntarily extending his service beyond his contract when Congress had not declared a national emergency. Thus, the precedent is set to bar other challenges of stop loss service extensions based on Santiago's assertions.
I think Santiago's legal team said it best:
Conscription for decades or life is the work of despots. ... It has no place in a free and democratic society.
I'm no longer going to warn people that a draft is coming. It's already here.