By Mike Sacks, From The National Law Journal

A federal judge in Washington on Tuesday threw out a Utah national guardsman’s religious-liberty lawsuit that arose from his objections to a same-sex marriage held in West Point’s Cadet Chapel.

The plaintiff, Layne Wilson, a member of Utah Air National Guard and the Federal Air Force Reserves, called such a use of the chapel a “mockery to God and our military core values” in a December 2012 email he sent from his military account to a West Point official Wilson mistakenly believed to be the academy’s chaplain.

Wilson’s superiors in Utah would go on to issue him a letter of reprimand for the email and then another for a Facebook post in which he called his commanding officer “part [of] the problem with this country.” Wilson sued in September 2013. He claimed those reprimands—and a since-reversed punitive change in his contract—violated his rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment, among other constitutional and statutory provisions.

Wilson, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, argued that the discipline he received for his email burdened his beliefs opposing same-sex marriage.

In a 35-page opinion, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that a burden on Wilson’s and the church’s belief is not enough to prevail against the secretary of the Air Force and the other military defendants. “A substantial burden on one’s religious beliefs—as distinct from such a burden on one’s exercise of religious beliefs—does not violate RFRA,” Mehta wrote.

Mehta was was similarly unmoved even when assuming Wilson’s emails were an exercise of religion. “The first [letter of reprimand] punished plaintiff for voicing his views about same-sex marriage, using his military email account, to a senior officer outside his chain of command. That is all,” Mehta wrote. “It did not bar him from voicing his opposition to same-sex marriage in other fora or by other means, and certainly not in his private affairs.”

On the free speech claim, Mehta ruled that an “email from an enlisted member of the military that protests the decision of a senior military official outside the sender’s chain of command and urges that official to reverse his decision receives no First Amendment protection.” Wilson’s “rant against his commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Tobias, is afforded even less First Amendment protection,” Mehta wrote.

Mehta also had a few pointed words about the quality of Wilson’s court filings, calling them an “abstruse” and “inartful” “thicket of allegations and claims that are often difficult to discern.”

Wilson’s lawyer, John Wells, executive director of Military-Veterans Advocacy, in Slidell, Louisiana, said he plans to challenge Mehta’s ruling.

“We certainly felt that the complaint met the criteria required by the Federal Rules for Civil Procedure but we are not going to engage in an argument,” Wells said. “We respect the judge’s opinion but disagree with it and intend to appeal to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.”

The ruling in Wilson v. James is posted at website below.

IMAGE: West Point Cadet Chapel.   Credit: Ahodges7 via Wikimedia Commons

For more on this story go to: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202739785295/Air-Guardsman-Disciplined-After-AntiSameSex-Marriage-Comments-Loses-Suit#ixzz3orLbDBKA