Becket Fund victory: Air Force, DOD settle Capt. Ryan Berry lawsuit
Capt. Ryan Berry, an Air Force missileer who was punished by superior officers
merely for requesting a religious accommodation, finally won the long battle
to clear his record today. In an settlement negotiated by The Becket Fund and
ratified by U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, the U.S. Air Force
and the Department of Defense agreed to remove all derogatory material that
had been placed in Berry's military records and on USAF and DOD websites.
The settlement agreement resolves a federal lawsuit filed on August 29, 2002,
in which the Air Force and DOD were charged with violating Capt. Berry's rights
under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Free Exercise and Free Speech
Clauses of the U.S. Constitution and the Privacy Act.
Berry is a 1996 honors graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He was cross-commissioned
in the Air Force, where he was trained in the operation of Minuteman III missiles
and assigned to Minot Air Force Base. When told of the potential for being assigned
to missile alerts with a female officer (24 to 48 hours in a small underground
bunker with very little privacy), Berry asked that he not be required (absent
military necessity) to serve alerts with female officers as an accommodation
of his Catholic belief that he should avoid situations in which he might "develop
inappropriate intimacy—even platonic—with a woman who is not his
wife." Berry regularly worked with women in all other aspects of his job
and received a favorable evaluation from his female superior officer.
Three successive squadron commanders granted Berry the accommodation, but in
December 1998, a new commander terminated the accommodation. Soon after Berry's
renewed request for accommodation, a number of false and derogatory statements
were placed in his official record. Efforts to have the negative material removed
were rejected by the Air Force, leaving him no alternative but to file suit
last year. Today's settlement gives Capt. Berry everything he had asked for
during the long battle to clear his record.
"This was a particularly disturbing case, because Capt. Berry was punished
simply for asking for a religious accommodation," Becket Fund President
Kevin J. Hasson said. "There's an important lesson here for everyone in
the Pentagon: handle requests for religious accommodation with respect and sensitivity
for the constitutional rights of members of the armed services."
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