A retired Marine working as a civilian at Camp Lejeune has sued the Marines for their demands that he remove bumper stickers from his vehicle in order to be allowed on base.  Jesse Nieto is represented by the Thomas More Law Center.

According to press reports, Nieto’s son died in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.  The bumper stickers were described as disparaging to the Islamic faith.

Military policies on bumper stickers are not entirely clear, though court rulings have upheld bans on those disparaging the president (Ethredge v. Hail).  The only Air Force regulation on the issue indicates members are explicitly allowed to have political bumper stickers on their private vehicles (AFI 51-902).  Camp Lejeune has a policy prohibiting “extremist,  indecent,  sexist,  or  racist” bumper stickers, but no distinguishing criteria.

Nieto and his lawyers argue that the policy allows the military to selectively apply the regulation, and they give evidence that they have already done so:  other “offensive” vehicle decals throughout the base; he lists the “Darwin fish” among them. 

More accurately, the base probably paid no attention to any stickers until someone complained. Unfortunately, this gives the appearance that the “criteria” for being “offensive” was a complaint, justified or not.

An additional problem, as the lawyers point out, is that there is nothing to prevent the military from deciding that anything is offensive, including bumper stickers in support of a religion or cause.  The actions of the military magistrate, if accurately described in the complaint, lend credence to that claim.  (The suit alleges the magistrate ordered Nieto to remove all of his stickers, which included, among others, a Gold Star commemorating the death of his son.)

As with other content-based restrictive policies, people are already floating the ideas of both extremes: ban all bumper stickers, or allow all.  Again, like many content-based conflicts, poorly written and poorly enforced policies may have to be clarified in a court of law. 

Also noted at the Religion Clause.