United States Fourth Circuit

In case involving current and retired members of the armed forces challenging law allowing their retirement pay to be divided in state divorce proceedings, dismissal of individual plaintiffs' claims, and summary judgment in favor of defendant on association's claims, are affirmed as, although the district court erred in finding it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the individual plaintiffs' claims, plaintiffs failed to state cognizable claims against the constitutionality of the Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act under substantive and procedural due process, the armed forces clause, the full faith and credit clause, and equal protection.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/22/2006
• Decided 09/18/2006
• Published 09/18/2006

Judges

• Before WIDENER and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and JOSEPH R. GOODWIN, United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  David Jeremy Bederman, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellants.  Dennis Carl Barghaan, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Jonathan L. Katz, Marks & Katz, L.L.C., Silver Spring, Maryland, for Appellants.  Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.