Don't Age, Don't Tell
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The Pentagon is so desperate for new recruits that they are, yet again, proposing to raise the enlistment age:
Just don't be gay.
Similar thoughts at Republic of T.
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Talk about bad timing: The government has submitted its petitioner's brief to the Supreme Court in the Solomon Amendment case, Rumsfeld v. FAIR (PDF - 53 pages).
To me it seems the biggest hurdle the government faces is reconciling the Solomon Amendments with the Court's holding in Boy Scouts v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000).
A quick perusal of the brief suggests that quite a bit of it addresses the Dale question and asserts that Dale was only about membership, not other forms of "expressive conduct." I know for a fact that's not correct; the opinion (written by Chief Justice Rehnquist, incidentally), clearly states that membership restrictions are only one example of an association's "freedom of expressive conduct."
I'm going to try to read through the brief and to re-read Dale and weigh in this weekend. Stay tuned.
Faced with major recruiting problems sparked by troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has asked Congress to raise the maximum age for U.S. military enlistees from 35 to 42 years old.That's right, you can be 42 and an E-1.
...
The Army National Guard, struggling more than any other part of the U.S. military to sign up new troops amid the Iraq war, missed its ninth straight monthly recruiting goal in June.
The regular Army met its recruiting goal this month, but is still 14 percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target and is in danger of missing an annual recruiting goal for the first time since 1999. The Army Reserve is 21 percent behind its year-to-date goal and also in danger of falling short for the year.
Just don't be gay.
Similar thoughts at Republic of T.
---
Talk about bad timing: The government has submitted its petitioner's brief to the Supreme Court in the Solomon Amendment case, Rumsfeld v. FAIR (PDF - 53 pages).
To me it seems the biggest hurdle the government faces is reconciling the Solomon Amendments with the Court's holding in Boy Scouts v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000).
A quick perusal of the brief suggests that quite a bit of it addresses the Dale question and asserts that Dale was only about membership, not other forms of "expressive conduct." I know for a fact that's not correct; the opinion (written by Chief Justice Rehnquist, incidentally), clearly states that membership restrictions are only one example of an association's "freedom of expressive conduct."
I'm going to try to read through the brief and to re-read Dale and weigh in this weekend. Stay tuned.
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Posted by KipEsquire on
22 July 2005
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