The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) was passed by Congress in 1994 to guarantee to military reservists a return to their civilian jobs after their deployments.

[3]The 'Cat's Paw' theory originates from a fable attributed to Jean de La Fontaine, in which a monkey dupes a cat into retrieving chestnuts from a fire.

[4] The case stemmed from the 2004 termination of Vincent Staub from his radiology technician position at Proctor Hospital in Illinois.

He sued the hospital, claiming that the complaint against him was a sham, and that the real reason he had been fired was due to the hatred of military members demonstrated by his supervisors.

The Supreme Court reversed the decision made by the Seventh Circuit in a unanimous 8-0 vote on 1 March 2011, with Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself.