Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/375

 502us1$17Z 08-21-96 15:27:31 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 215 (1991)

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Opinion of the Court

He requested a leave of absence from his hospital job as ostensibly guaranteed by the Act and reported for military duty, as ordered, on August 17. Several weeks later, St. Vincent’s advised him that his request was unreasonable and thus beyond the Act’s guarantee. After so informing King, St. Vincent’s took the further step of bringing a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to settle the issue whether the applicable terms of the Act provided reemployment rights after tours of duty as long as King’s. Although the court held that service in the AGR program carried protection under § 2024(d),5 it nonetheless rendered declaratory judgment for St. Vincent’s on the ground that the request for a 3-year leave of absence was per se unreasonable. In imposing a test of reasonableness on King’s request, the District Court was following the opinion of the Eleventh Circuit in Gulf States Paper Corp. v. Ingram, 811 F. 2d 1464, 1468 (1987), which had in turn interpreted a Fifth Circuit case as requiring that leave requests for protection under § 2024(d) must be reasonable. See Lee v. Pensacola, 634 F. 2d 886, 889 (1981).6 A panel of the Eleventh Circuit affirmed, with two judges agreeing with the District Court that guaranteeing reemployment after a 3-year tour of duty would be per se unreasonable, thereby putting King outside the protection of § 2024(d). 901 F. 2d 1068 (1990). Judge Roney concurred separately that King’s request was unreasonable, but dissented from the creation of a per se rule. Id., at 1072–1073. 5 Section 2024(d) covers AGR participants. See Veterans’ Rehabilitation and Education Amendments of 1980, § 511(b), 94 Stat. 2207. Neither party contests the applicability of § 2024(d) to King’s leave request. 6 Lee is binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit, as it was decided on January 20, 1981, before the Eleventh Circuit was carved out of the Fifth. See Bonner v. Prichard, 661 F. 2d 1206, 1207 (CA11 1981) (en banc) (Fifth Circuit decisions handed down as of Sept. 30, 1981, adopted as Eleventh Circuit precedent).