Soldiers challenging 'stop loss' policy

Nan Levinson, Boston Globe Correspondent looks at the legal challenges to the DoD's 'Stop Loss' policy. A tough issue weighing the needs of the country against legal contracts signed between the soldier/sailor/airman and the country.//JW sends

The first class-action lawsuit challenging a policy that allows the military to extend soldiers' terms of enlistment involuntarily is expected to be filed today in federal court in Washington.

The Center for Constitutional Rights seeks a hearing this week on a request for an injunction on behalf of soldiers subject to what are known as stop loss orders.

Such orders authorize the military to suspend nearly all discharges, transfers, and retirements, and to retain soldiers who have been deployed or whose units have been alerted for deployment.

As troop strength is strained by activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, thousands of active-duty soldiers and reservists are forced to remain in uniform after fulfilling the terms of their contracts. Many could be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan for second or third tours of combat.

According to Charley Richardson, a cofounder of Military Families Speak Out, the Center for Constitutional Rights is planning to file suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia in the name of people who, but for stop loss orders, would be out of the military. ''Therefore," he said, ''the remedy is to let them out." Plaintiffs include soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait and one still in the United States trying not to be shipped out.

Staughton Lynd, an attorney in Ohio involved in the case, declined to give specific numbers, saying on Saturday that court papers were being finalized.

Stop loss measures were authorized by Congress after the Vietnam War and implemented during the Persian Gulf War of 1991. The current policy was authorized by an executive order signed by President Bush three days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been invoked 11 times since.