I received this e-mail today. Please contact MFSO if you have a loved one or you are under stop loss orders. Also, if you know of other soldiers who are, please send to them, also.
Dear Members of Military Families Speak Out,
As you may know, "Stop Loss" -- part of the "back-door draft" -- continues to hold service men and women in the military beyond their enlistment dates. This Pentagon policy was challenged in 2005 by a group of soldiers who were being held in the military beyond the end-dates of their military contracts. A very unfortunate ruling came out of a three-judge panel in the Federal 9th Circuit Court in Washington State in April, 2005. This ruling basically said that the military contract can not be viewed in the same was as an employment contract. An employment contract binds both sides to the agreement. In a military contract, the ruling said that service men and women have to live up to everything they sign on to in that contract, but the military (the government) is not bound by that contract in a number of significant ways. The ruling said that the government and the military has larger issues to be concerned with, such as national security, and therefore can make decisions to hold service men and women in the service indefinitely.
The Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild is considering bringing new challenges to the Pentagon's Stop Loss policy. In order to do this, they will need service men and women currently affected by stop-loss orders to bring lawsuits against this policy.
If your loved one(s) is/are currently serving under stop-loss orders and he or she would consider being part of a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon's stop-loss orders, please email us at mfso@mfso.org . We will then get you in contact with those involved in exploring the legalities of such a case.
In Peace and Solidarity,
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson
Co-founders, Military Families Speak Out
mfso@mfso.org
www.mfso.org
