Bittner v. Secretary of Defense

• Decision Date: 13 June 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 84-1730.
• Citation: 625 F. Supp. 1022
• Parties: Warren R. BITTNER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

625 F. Supp. 1022

Warren R. BITTNER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 84-1730.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

June 13, 1985.

Michael J. McDanold, Sidley & Austin and Donald M. Squires, Washington, D.C. (Elizabeth Symonds and Arthur B. Spitzer, ACLU Fund of the Nat. Capital Area, Washington, D.C., of counsel), for plaintiffs.

Michael L. Martinez, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., for defendants.

OPINION

JUNE L. GREEN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on defendants' motion to dismiss this action, plaintiffs' opposition thereto, defendants' reply to plaintiffs' opposition, supplemental briefing, oral argument on the motion, and the entire record herein. For the reasons set forth below in detail, the Court denies defendants' motion, but dismisses some of the named plaintiffs.

On June 5, 1984, eight former service-members of the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force brought suit against the Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the United States Navy, Army, and Air Force. Also named in the original complaint were organizations, namely, the Vietnam Veterans of America ("VVA"), and the National Gay Task Force ("NGTF"). By means of an amended complaint filed on August 3, 1984, an additional plaintiff, Warren R. Bittner, was included in the action.

Plaintiffs in this case seek declaratory and injunctive relief for the allegedly illegal and unconstitutional practices and policies with regard to the creation, maintenance, and public disclosure of records reflecting less than honorable discharge of military service. The individually named plaintiffs in this action challenge the less-than-honorable-discharge characterization issued administratively for alleged homosexual acts, homosexual tendencies, or homosexuality regardless of whether such acts or status as a homosexual had an impact on the servicemembers' performance of military duties. Eight of the individual plaintiffs not only challenge the character of the discharge itself, but also challenge the administrative decisions of the Discharge Review Boards ("DRB") and the Boards for Correction of Military Records ("BCMR") as unlawful within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2). Plaintiff Bittner's claim is limited to challenging the characterization of his discharge. The two organizational plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to strike down defendants' current discharge characterization policy because it allegedly is violative of the law and the Constitution.

Defendants seek to dismiss this action on three grounds: lack of standing for the organizational plaintiffs, failure to exhaust administrative remedies for plaintiff Bittner, and statute of limitations for the remaining eight individual plaintiffs.

Upon review of each argument, the Court concludes that plaintiff VVA must be dismissed for lack of standing; that plaintiff Bittner must be dismissed, without prejudice, for failure to exhaust available administrative remedies; and that the remaining eight individual plaintiffs are not barred by the statute of limitations from bringing this action to seek review of the administrative review boards' decisions, but are barred from seeking review of their original discharge. Some of these eight plaintiffs, however, are dismissed, without prejudice, for failure to exhaust their administrative remedies. Accordingly, only two individual plaintiffs remain to pursue review of the administrative determination, and the NGTF may remain to pursue claims against defendants' challenged policies and practices. The Court shall review each type of plaintiff sought to be dismissed by defendants.

Organizational Plaintiffs

Plaintiffs VVA and NGTF assert that the military policy regulating the character of discharges issued to homosexuals has caused them "injury in fact" and, therefore, gives standing to these plaintiffs.

A. Vietnam Veterans of America

"The standing inquiry requires careful judicial examination of a complaint's allegations to ascertain whether the particular plaintiff is entitled to an adjudication of the particular claims asserted." Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3325, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984). In their complaint plaintiffs assert for the VVA that

because of defendants' practices and policies challenged herein, VVA has had and will have to expend considerable financial resources to provide legal representation and legal advice on applications for recharacterization of discharge filed before the Discharge Review Boards and Boards for Correction of Military Records by veterans discharged for homosexual acts, homosexuality, or "homosexual tendencies." This diversion of financial resources has hindered VVA in accomplishing its organizational goals by assisting veterans on other issues related to their military service.

Complaint at ¶ 11.

In the admittedly broad but unanimous decision in Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363, 102 S.Ct. 1114, 71 L.Ed.2d 214 (1982), the Supreme Court outlined the requirements necessary for an organization to attain standing. In that decision certain individuals and an organization sought to challenge a realty company's alleged practice of "racial steering." The organizational plaintiff was "`a non-profit corporation ...' whose purpose was `to make equal opportunity in housing a reality in the Richmond Metropolitan Area.' ... Its activities included the operation of a housing counseling service, and the investigation and referral of complaints concerning housing discrimination." Id. at 368, 102 S.Ct. at 1118-19. Quoting the complaint, the Court outlined what the organizational plaintiff alleged:

"Plaintiff HOME has been frustrated by defendants' racial steering practices in its efforts to assist equal access to housing through counseling and other referral services. Plaintiff HOME has had to devote significant resources to identify and counteract the defendant's sic racially discriminatory steering practices." App. 17, ¶ 16.

Id. at 379, 102 S.Ct. at 1124. The Court then concluded that

if, as broadly alleged, petitioners' steering practices have perceptively impaired HOME's ability to provide counseling and referral services for low- and moderate-income homeseekers, there can be no question that the organization has suffered injury in fact. Such concrete and demonstrable injury to the organization's activities — with the consequent drain on the organization's resources — constitutes far more than simply a setback to the organization's abstract social interests. ...

Id.

Courts that have applied the Havens Realty standard have stressed the two-fold nature of organizational standing. The court in Minority Employees v. Tennessee, 573 F.Supp. 1346 (M.D.Tenn.1983), for example, noted that

when an organization alleges that it has been hindered by a defendant in its efforts to assist others to obtain constitutional or statutory rights and that it has had to devote significant resources to counteract a defendant's actions, it has alleged a sufficient injury to itself to establish standing.

Id. at 1349 (emphasis added). See also Davis v. Mansards, 597 F.Supp. 334, 343 (N.D.Ind.1984).

Although plaintiff VVA is able to allege that it has incurred a drain on its organizational resources, no allegation is made that it has been hindered in effecting its organizational goals. Actual interference with the implementation of the VVA's programs must also be claimed before sufficient injury is present for standing purposes. A mere depletion of resources in asserting claims of allegedly illegal activity is not sufficient to confer standing. Accordingly, the Court finds that plaintiff VVA does not have standing to pursue this action and must therefore be dismissed.

B. National Gay Task Force

The NGTF asserts in its complaint that it is

a nonprofit organization created for the purpose of advancing the rights and protecting the interests of individuals who are gay or lesbian. There are over 10,000 members of NGTF, most of whom are homosexual. Members of NGTF are currently members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Air Force and are, unbeknownst to their commanding officers, gay or lesbian. These members of NGTF are subject to the policy of the military departments to separate homosexual personnel and the policy to issue such personnel less than honorable discharges in circumstances in which their homosexuality has not affected performance of military duties. This policy currently harms these NGTF members psychologically and emotionally because they are aware that a less than honorable discharge, by characterizing the member's entire period of service, severely stigmatizes an individual, causing loss of self-esteem and loss of reputation, and making it very difficult to obtain employment in civilian society.

Complaint at ¶ 12.

In determining whether the NGTF has standing, the Court looks to the reasoning as set forth in Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). In Warth, the Supreme Court stated that:

The association must allege that its members, or any one of them, are suffering immediate or threatened injury as a result of the challenged action of the sort that would make out a justiciable case had the members themselves brought suit.... So long as this can be established, and so long as the nature of the claim and of the relief sought does not make the individual participation of each injured party indispensible to proper resolution of the cause, the association may be an appropriate representative of its members, entitled to invoke the court's jurisdiction.

Id. at 511, 95 S.Ct. at 2211 (emphasis added). What plaintiff NGTF has alleged in this action is that its homosexual members presently in the military are threatened with a less than honorable discharge as a direct result of defendants' policy and practice.

Defendants, in seeking to dismiss ...