Liberty Counsel, which is representing that officer, has given Gov. Brad Little until August 30 to respond to its request. The legal group says in 2023 a subordinate senior enlisted man who claims to be homosexual filed a formal discrimination military complaint against the officer who shared his religious and political beliefs – particularly regarding gender ideology and the sexualization of children – on his private social platform.
The officer, according to Liberty Counsel, "wrote against graphic, obscene children’s books in a library and the promotion of a 'drag kids' event and drag queens in schools." In addition, the officer "posted statements such as 'no child is born in the wrong body,' males should not be competing in female sports, and against the medical mutilation of gender-confused children."
AFN spoke with Daniel Schmid, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel.
"The investigator essentially said Yes, we can't have these types of views go forward. Now that's not the adopted policy of Idaho," Schmid explains, "but that was the investigator's recommendation – and that's nonsense.
"Obviously it violates the First Amendment in many respects – speech, religion, all the rest of it," the attorney continued. "And the notion that [they're] going to purge the military of individuals who have conservative viewpoints is just nonsense to begin with."
Liberty Counsel described the compliant as "frivolous" as well as a violation of the officer's constitutional rights.
"The man falsely claims that the example' of the officer's speech showed 'just how much [the officer] truly hates the LGBTQ community.' [But] the officer actually believes all people are made in God's image and have inherent dignity and are worthy of respect," says the letter to the governor.
Currently, the case is in Governor Little's court, says Schmid.
"… He can say there's no way we're going to accept this 'no Christians in command' policy," Schmid notes. "He's within his authority to do that because he's the commander-in-chief of the Idaho National Guard. He can rescind the findings of the investigating officer. So, we've asked him to do that.
"And then we've asked him to take all the steps necessary to restore this National Guardsman to his prior position," the attorney concludes. "We're optimistic that he will. If he does not, then we will consider whether additional steps are necessary – up to and including a federal lawsuit."
