court martial and the 1st amendment

[Son of Butch]

Military orders are presumed lawful and are disobeyed at the subordinate's peril.
cpl Monifa Sterling was court martialed for disobeying a lawful order.

The 1st amendment protects the free exercise of religion, including religious beliefs and religious practices.
Religious exercise is defined to include any exercise of religion central to a system of religious belief.
Personal beliefs about religious practices do not suffice as there is no reference point to assess whether the practice is indeed religious.

The court ruled taping a bible verse to a workplace computer is not a religious exercise of religious belief.
The court ruled it was a personal belief about religious practices and that Ms Sterling disobeyed a lawful order.
Other than her personal desire, there was no reason she could not follow the order to take the message down.

In any event the 1st amendment is not threatened as notice was given: THIS OPINION DOES NOT SERVE AS BINDING PRECEDENT

I know it all may seem a bit nit-picky, but that's kind of what courts often are.

 

[TexasBred]

Butch religious freedom today mainly means you are free to "sit inside a church bldg". (And you may not be safe there).

 

[SJB]

I'm having a hard time getting my head around this one. Seems like a gung ho staff sergeant made a management decision that didn't need to be made. Didn't appear to be motivated from somebody complaining about the verse? And somehow it made all the way to the courts?

On the one hand, orders are orders. On the other, it was just a bible verse on a desk.

Just seems like an awful little thing. I wonder if there is more to the story.

 

[Nesikep]

I agree with SJB... someone had their panties in a knot for some reason, and it probably wasn't the verse

 

[gimpyrancher]

With all the horror and carnage our folks in uniform are exposed to, it seems particularly silly to court martial one over a Bible Verse that gives even one person comfort.

On the other hand, it's interesting they court martial someone for posting a Bible Verse and at the other end of the spectrum, drum out a rape victim and promote the rapist.