Law Practice
Oct. 23, 2007
Soldier Sues for Discharge From Military
LOS ANGELES - An Army specialist filed a federal lawsuit Friday seeking discharge from the military as a conscientious objector because service violates his religious beliefs.
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - An Army specialist filed a federal lawsuit Friday seeking discharge from the military as a conscientious objector because service violates his religious beliefs.
Calvin Chee Keong Lee, a 26-year-old permanent resident from Malaysia, claimed a zealous recruiter convinced him to enlist in 2004 by telling him he would repair trucks and never leave Fort Irwin.
Lee's three-year contract was set to expire in September, but the Army extended it as part of a "stop-loss" order, designed to keep troops in service. Lee applied for conscientious-objector status based on his Buddhist-Taoist beliefs in January, after learning he would be deployed to Iraq. The Army rejected his request in September.
Deborah Karpatkin, Lee's lawyer, said she learned Thursday that the Army will not send him to Iraq. He is seeking discharge, because "every day of service is a spiritual hardship," she said.
A representative from the Army did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
By filing the suit, Lee became at least the 10th member of the U.S. armed forces to sue for discharge as a conscientious objector since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Six of these service members have been able to leave the military after suing, said Karpatkin, who represented two of them.
Still, winning a court case can be "a real uphill struggle," said Bill Galvin, a coordinator at the Center on Conscience & War.
Galvin said the legal issue is not whether the military made the wrong decision in denying a conscientious-objector claim but whether that decision has a basis in fact.
A total of 425 service members applied for conscientious-objector status between 2002 and 2006, according to a Governmental Accountability Office report issued this month. The military granted 53 percent of these applications.
Karpatkin said that all of the officers involved with Lee's application - three who interviewed him face to face and another five who reviewed his application, including a brigadier general - agreed that his objection was based on sincere religious beliefs. But the Army denied his claim with a one-sentence statement and no explanation, she said.
Martin Bergn
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