[Peace-discuss] A campaign for C-U?

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Two California Cities Challenge U.S. Government over Military Recruiting
	Thursday, June 11, 2009

(Pic: 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)
Youth Protection Act
The Recruiter Handbook (Chapter 9) (United States Army Recruiting Command) (PDF)

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Two_California_Cities_Challenge_US_Government_over_Military_Recruiting_90611