By Mike Rose, USAFA ‘69
STARRS Executive Vice President, General Counsel
STARRS affiliated attorneys have engaged in numerous activities to educate about racism and radicalism in the military.
For example, they helped STARRS file more than thirty Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the military.
Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit objecting to the failure of the Air Force Academy to respond properly to two of our FOIA requests, resulting in hundreds of pages of new documents being provided to STARRS.
These documents indicate that claims of systemic racism at the Air Force Academy are unfounded or exaggerated.
In addition, on June 29, 2022, a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of the military’s COVID vaccine mandate was filed in Charleston, South Carolina, on behalf of 24 military members, including cadets at three academies.
As a result, all but five of the plaintiffs were retained in the military and the five USCGA cadets who were discharged for not taking the vaccine have been offered reinstatement to the USCGA. This lawsuit is pending.
On December 9, 2022, Senator Lindsey Graham and STARRS General Counsel and former SC State Senator Mike Rose held a press conference in Charleston, South Carolina, explaining why the military’s COVID vaccine mandate should be terminated.
STARRS affiliated attorneys have advised hundreds of military members about their rights to seek exemptions from taking the COVID vaccine, and have educated senior members of Congress and the public about how the military failed to provide those exemptions as required and how the military’s COVID vaccine mandate was illegal. This and other educational efforts helped convince Congress to require DoD to rescind its COVID vaccine mandate.
STARRS affiliated attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in the District of Columbia challenging DoD’s suspension of the Congressionally created Boards of Visitors of West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
A few days later, DoD reinstated those BOVs, apparently recognizing that DoD has no authority to stop the operation of an oversight board created by Congress.
This lawsuit also is challenging the abrupt firing and replacement of all Trump appointed BOV members by newly elected President Biden, and the “packing” of the BOVs by the creation of BOV subcommittees that could be populated by military designees who were not members of the BOVs.
Congressmen Mark Green (West Point graduate, member House Armed Services Committee and West Point BOV) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) are plaintiffs in this lawsuit. After a year, the judge dismissed the lawsuit on technical issues without considering the merits. STARRS affiliated attorneys will appeal the dismissal.
STARRS attorneys are educating military members about their rights under the federal Privacy Act to obtain a copy of all government records about them, including all statements about their failure to take the COVID vaccine, and to require the deletion or correction of all statements that are not accurate, timely, relevant or complete.
For example, any statement to the effect that a military member failed to obey a lawful order to take the COVID vaccine could be challenged as inaccurate.
Any failure of the military to properly correct its records about an individual can be challenged in federal court, with attorney fees and costs being paid to a successful plaintiff.
STARRS-affiliated attorneys work daily to help ensure that the operation and actions of STARRS and its officers and directors are lawful.
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This article is from the April 2023 STARRS SITREP Newsletter
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