The Public Record:
A U.S. Army soldier who was allegedly forced to attend fundamentalist Christian themed events and sued Secretary of Defense Robert Gates claiming his First Amendment rights were violated should not be permitted to seek relief in federal court because he failed to take his grievances to his superiors, the Justice Department said in court documents filed last week in response to the Army’s soldier’s federal lawsuit.
Moreover, the Justice Department argued that documentary evidence contained in the lawsuit that says the U.S. military engaged in a “pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States Army” should be set aside because the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that anyone was negatively “affected by the alleged” abuses.
