These two cases concern government employees. The first provides the pinball analogy, courtesy of Justice Alito.  The case is Elgin v.  Department of the Treasury, No. 11-45, 6/12/2012. The case concerns four former federal employees who were discharged or constructively discharged because they had not registered for military service. Federal law (5 U.S.C. §3328) bans such people from employment by a federal executive agency.  The challenge to agency action was based on Constitutional grounds: bill of attainder, prohibited by the First Amendment (“attainder” means being tainted and involves loss of civil rights as punishment for a crime; it had been used in British law to cause forfeiture of the property of the attainted to the government or feudal lord and was sometimes used to single out individuals for special punishment); and sex discrimination since the military service requirement applies only to males, based (presumably) on the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process. The Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) established the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to deal with federal employee appeals from agency action; further appeal is to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Only for specified discrimination situations can the employee go to another federal court. (more…)