{"id":9428,"date":"2011-02-10T01:52:10","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T06:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=9428"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:15:31","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:15:31","slug":"usafa-lawsuit-dismissed-weinstein-goes-0-for-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/10\/usafa-lawsuit-dismissed-weinstein-goes-0-for-4\/","title":{"rendered":"USAFA Lawsuit Dismissed, Weinstein Goes 0 for 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday,\u00a0a Denver judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by Michael Weinstein’s<\/a> Military Religious Freedom Foundation against the US Air Force Academy.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello dismissed the suit, saying neither associate professor of economics David Mullin nor the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had shown the prospect of retribution was real and imminent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, despite having just filed the lawsuit,\u00a0Mullin reportedly\u00a0admitted he had not suffered retribution from skipping prior<\/em><\/a> prayer luncheons, and\u00a0he wasn’t<\/em> sure he’d face retribution<\/a>\u00a0at all:<\/p>\n

In a telephone interview after the ruling, Mullin acknowledged he couldn’t say with certainty that he would face retribution for not attending.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, the hearing was reported as an opportunity to hear arguments “on Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction.”\u00a0 Arguello appears to have gone a step further and not only denied the injunction, but also dismissed the suit altogether.<\/p>\n

Michael Weinstein now stands at a record of 0 and 4<\/a>.\u00a0 In the past 6 years he has sued the US military 4 times.\u00a0 Each has been dismissed.\u00a0 While it is not unforgivable to lose a lawsuit, Weinstein has lost every single one<\/em> he’s filed against the military.\u00a0 In fact, none have survived even the initial motion to dismiss.\u00a0 At some point, that becomes a statement on the\u00a0validity of his claims.\u00a0 (The word “frivolous” is already being raised.)\u00a0 His legal arguments are weak, his understanding of the Constitution flawed, and his accusations against the military baseless.\u00a0 In short,\u00a0Weinstein’s self-described campaign of “litigation and agitation”\u00a0has become precisely that: a campaign of\u00a0legal\u00a0harassment, nothing more.\u00a0 Three prior lawsuits had already proven that;\u00a0but it\u00a0didn’t stop Weinstein from filing a fourth.\u00a0 It is unlikely, barring an unusual sanction, that he will be deterred from filing a fifth.<\/p>\n

Weinstein can’t have filed a single lawsuit with the sincere intent\u00a0to “right a wrong”\u00a0— if he had, why did he fail to file even\u00a0a single<\/em> appeal (despite repeated promises to do so)?\u00a0 It would seem even he<\/em> didn’t believe his client’s case could survive.\u00a0 Rather, he had accomplished his goal of attention and fundraising; he had\u00a0made his publicity splash.\u00a0 The military members who served as vehicles for his vendetta were put to the side.\u00a0 The unique situation in this case is that it set a record for how quickly Weinstein was sent home.<\/p>\n

More importantly, contrary to Weinstein’s accusations, Arguello said the Academy did<\/em> communicate about the event appropriately<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Arguello] said the academy had clearly stated<\/span> to faculty, cadets and staff<\/em><\/strong> that the event was voluntary and no one faced reprisals for being a no-show. (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Arguello] also said government lawyers had shown the chaplains<\/span> \u2014 not academy commanders \u2014 were the sponsors<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, although she said there was \u201csome lack of clarity\u201d in the way the event\u2019s sponsorship was described. (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a possible disconnect from reality, one of Weinstein’s attorneys claimed victory after a Chaplain said he had planned to make sure the Chapel received the credit for sponsoring the event:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the goal of this case,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been given assurances they will walk more carefully.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where, precisely, in the lawsuit did Weinstein ask for this clarification?\u00a0\u00a0Look at every press release and news article in the past few weeks.\u00a0 How many times did Weinstein “demand” the Air Force Academy chapel clarify its sponsorship?\u00a0 Was it between the words “rescind<\/a>” and “Lt Clebe McClary” that were repeated so often recently?\u00a0 Perhaps it was between the lines of\u00a0the accusations\u00a0McClary was\u00a0the ‘wrong kind<\/a>‘ of Christian and a criminal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As with MRFF researcher\u00a0Chris Rodda’s constant (and often irrelevant) reference to\u00a0military uniforms<\/a>, the MRFF will likely seize on this for future complaints about military interaction with religiously-themed events.\u00a0 Notably, however, this was a civilian’s analysis of internal military interaction — and the courts are generally loathe to “interfere” with internal military operations.\u00a0 That may be why there is no finding or order telling the Academy to do anything, despite a comment from the judge on “clarity.”<\/p>\n

Sometimes the US military seems to walk on eggshells in what should be clear issues of religious freedom.\u00a0 Weinstein’s lawsuits seem to aim to make the military even more<\/em> sensitive, to the point it has a\u00a0“chilling effect” on the military’s support of the religious freedom of its troops.\u00a0 And Weinstein claims to support “religious freedom,” no less.<\/p>\n

The Academy reportedly invited press to the luncheon<\/a>; as previously noted, at least two MRFF supporters<\/a> have also indicated they plan to attend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday,\u00a0a Denver judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation against the US Air Force Academy. U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello dismissed the suit, saying neither associate professor of economics David Mullin nor the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had shown the prospect of retribution was real and imminent. In fact, despite having just filed the lawsuit,\u00a0Mullin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5284,175,1450,4,1379,82,1398,85,2,5218,7,11,10,65],"class_list":["post-9428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-chaplain","tag-chris-rodda","tag-christine-arguello","tag-churchandstate","tag-clebe-mcclary","tag-constitution","tag-david-mullin","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-usafa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}