Voluntary Veterans Preference in CNMI Private Employment

This entry is here so a veteran does not misread it as a right. Public Law 22-30 of January 31, 2023, codified at 1 CMC § 20134, creates "a permissive preference in private employment for certain veterans." The operative words are may and permissive. No private employer is required to do anything. What the section does is remove a reason not to. In every private, nonpublic employment in the Commonwealth, honorably discharged soldiers, sailors and marines who are veterans of any war of the United States, or of any military campaign for which a campaign ribbon has been awarded, and their widows or widowers, may be preferred for employment. Spouses of honorably discharged veterans who have a service-connected permanent and total disability may also be preferred. And then the sentence that is the whole point: "These preferences are not considered violations of any state or local equal employment opportunity law." The legislature said plainly what it was doing. Its findings record that the Act "provides an express shield against litigation for employers who want to provide a preference to veterans," that "there is an express safe harbor in Title VII to allow for these types of state laws," and that the aim was to "remove the fear factor" for companies that would like to prefer veterans but worry about discrimination claims. The definitions are wide and worth reading if you are close to the edge. A veteran under subsection (b) is anyone who now holds an honorable discharge, is actively serving honorably, or was discharged for physical reasons with an honorable record, and who served between World War I and World War II or during a period of war as a member of any branch; as a member of the Women's Air Forces Service Pilots; as a documented merchant mariner aboard an ocean-going vessel operated by the War Shipping Administration or the Office of Defense Transportation from December 7, 1941 through December 31, 1946; as a documented merchant mariner in Korean territorial waters between June 25, 1950 and July 27, 1953 and in Vietnamese territorial waters between August 5, 1964 and May 7, 1975 who received a military commendation; or as a civil service crewmember aboard an Army or Navy transport service vessel in ocean-going service from December 7, 1941 through December 31, 1946. It also reaches anyone awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal or the Marine Corps or Navy Expeditionary Medal for opposed action on foreign soil. The periods of war are listed: World War I, World War II, Korea, the Vietnam era in its two statutory windows, the Persian Gulf War from August 2, 1990, any future declared war, and a named list of armed conflicts where the participant was awarded the campaign badge or medal, covering Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Subsection (d) separately reaches a current National Guard or reserve member deployed to an armed conflict, or one honorably discharged or discharged for medical reasons with an honorable record, who has fulfilled an initial military service obligation, or was called into federal service by a presidential select reserve call-up for at least one hundred eighty cumulative days, along with Philippine armed forces and scouts from December 7, 1941 through August 15, 1945. One gap worth naming. The findings say the legislation "intends to mirror public employment preferences," and describe adding a percentage to an examination score. The operative text of § 20134 does no such thing; it reaches only private, nonpublic employment. The Commonwealth's public employment preference is a separate and later statute, the Veterans' Preference Act of 2023 at 1 CMC §§ 8701-8703, and it has its own entry here.