Veterans Clinic Files Suit Against DoD for Failing to Release Records

The Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School filed a lawsuit on February 3, 2015, with the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and ACLU of Connecticut against the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The lawsuit alleges that the DoD failed to release records showing how the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA), the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), and the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point have maintained policies and practices that have resulted in the underrepresentation of women and in campus environments where misogyny and harassment prevail.

The lawsuit aims to capture information about the military academies’ admissions and recruiting policies, with the ultimate goal of ending gender disparities and discrimination that women who aspire to be military officers face due to the policies.

“FOIA is a powerful tool in holding our government accountable,” said Ashley Anderson ’16, a law student intern at the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School and Service Academy graduate. “The military is obligated to recruit and train the best and brightest regardless of gender. If West Point, the Air Force Academy, and the Naval Academy believe they are fulfilling that duty, then they have nothing to hide and should release the requested data to the public.”

According to the suit, DoD has a long history of denying women opportunities to serve equally and in leadership roles. Cadets and midshipmen attend the Military Service Academies tuition-free, graduate with a bachelor of science degree with a commission as a Second Lieutenant, and must serve a minimum of five years on active duty. Yet, the percentage of women at West Point has remained between 14 and 17 percent for over 25 years. In addition, women are less than one-fourth of the brigade of Midshipmen at USNA, and USAFA has limited its enrollment of women cadets to at or below 23 percent since 1976, despite commissioning its graduates into a service in which more than 99 percent of career fields have been open to women for two decades.

Women’s underrepresentation in the Academies contributes to a dearth of women officers in the Armed Forces, students said. Overall, women comprise less than 17 percent of all officers in the military services, despite DoD’s rescission of policies restricting military jobs for women.

"Service women today are serving in unprecedented roles that are enabling the military to be a more effective fighting force," said Greg Jacob, Service Women’s Action Network policy director and a former Marine Corps infantry officer. "However, Service Academy culture and policies are preventing the military from becoming the 21st century leader we need it to be. In order to remain relevant, the Academies must increase women's accession and leadership opportunities and actively support their advancement in the force. Instead, after nearly 40 years of integration at the Academies, women are represented at abysmally low rates, and a sexually hostile environment still seems to be the norm."

Without the presence of more women, female students continue to be targeted for mistreatment, discrimination, harassment, and sexual violence, according to the lawsuit. Despite nearly ten years of research, training, and focus on the crisis of sexual assault at Military Service Academies, sexual assault reports at the Academies have not shown a substantial change in the past five years. The Academies received 70 reports of sexual assaults in the 2012–2013 Academic Program Year. According to the DOD’s data, more than 90 percent of the victims were women.

“The Military Service Academies are premier educational institutions that provide tuition-free paths to leadership and are run by the federal government —there is no excuse for the government to provide this opportunity to women at such dismally low rates,” said Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women’s Rights Project senior staff attorney.

SWAN, along with the ACLU and ACLU of Connecticut, believe the data that would be obtained from the FOIA request will shed light on the admission process, as well as the assignments women receive after graduation, and identify the problems and discrepancies preventing women from being admitted to the Military Service Academies and thus serving in leadership positions in the military.

“The admissions systems that result in student bodies of less than 20 percent women have been shrouded in a certain amount of mystery, and this lawsuit aims to throw a spotlight on the mechanisms that keep women’s numbers so low,” said Stephen Glassman, ACLU of Connecticut executive director.

On November 14, 2014, the plaintiffs submitted FOIA requests to USMA, USNA, and USAFA for records relating to admissions policies, rates of admission, and information regarding admissions targets or quotas for women. The FOIA request also asked for information regarding facilities for women and policies and responses to sexual harassment and assault at the Military Service Academies.

In violation of statutory deadlines established by Congress, the USMA and USAFA have not produced any documents. The USNA has disclosed records in response to some portions of plaintiffs’ request but have withheld others and also partially denied the plaintiffs’ fee waiver request.

Accordingly, the lawsuit contends that DoD failed to release the records and failed to make a reasonable effort to search for the records within the statutory deadlines.

A copy of today’s filing can be found here.

In the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School, law students represent individual veterans and their organizations under the supervision of clinical professors. Students engage in litigation before administrative agencies and courts on matters including disability benefits claims, Freedom of Information Act requests, and civil rights lawsuits. In addition, students represent local and national organizations on policy matters relating to the legal needs of veterans.