Cameron Beck hopped on his motorcycle on a spring day four years ago and set out for home on Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri where his wife and 7-year-old son were waiting to have their customary lunch with him Beck’s house was only about a mile from his workplace The 29-year-old was killed in a crash with Blanca Mitchell a civilian employee driving a government-issued van Mitchell had become distracted by her cellphone and turned in front of him without looking Supreme Court to review a wrongful death claim she filed against the federal government Two lower courts rejected the case on grounds that Beck was in uniform and on base when he was killed we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Kari Beck said in a phone interview last week Our service members and our families deserve better than that.” a judicial rule based on a 1950 Supreme Court decision that prevents active-duty military personnel from suing the federal government for wrongful injury or death related to their service The Beck petition asks the court to distinguish between Feres and a 1949 ruling in Brooks v the justices held that service members traveling in their vehicle on personal business could bring a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries resulting from a government employee’s negligent driving the act allowed plaintiffs to seek damages from the United States in claims stemming from the negligence of a federal employee But the Feres decision narrowed the scope of the legislation for active-duty personnel by saying that claims “where the injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service” aren’t covered The two lower courts that ruled in Beck’s case gave wide berth to the “incident to service” language in their interpretations Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit affirmed the district court decision ruling that Feres applied to Beck’s complaint since he was on active duty on base and subject to recall at the time of the crash Beck attorney Nathan Mammen argues that the Supreme Court needs to clarify what is and isn’t incident to service “It’s becoming increasingly where courts have thrown up their hands Beck and Mammen face a tall order with their petition The high court hasn’t ruled on a Feres case since 1987 despite wide-ranging calls for reexamining the doctrine Following back surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for chronic neck pain “Courts arbitrarily deprive injured servicemembers and their families of a remedy that Congress provided them,” Thomas wrote urging the court to “fix this mess we made.” Had Carter been a veteran rather than an inactive reservist he could have filed a lawsuit for the same injuries arising from the same treatment by the same military staff at the same hospital a veterans group and two civil liberties organizations filed friend-of-the-court briefs that challenge both the two lower courts’ application of the Feres doctrine and the 1950 ruling itself an attorney at the Constitutional Accountability Center said the Feres decision was wrong from the get-go and has sown confusion in the decades since “It has ballooned into a complete barrier to relief under the Federal Tort Claims Act for service members,” she said “Different courts approach it in different ways.” Kari Beck said that in the aftermath of her husband’s death she received hundreds of messages describing the impact he’d had on people adding that he would have given the shirt off his back to anyone in need “That’s one of the reasons why I want to take this to the Supreme Court because that’s kind of his legacy he was working as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the 509th Bomb Wing’s communication security unit “They needed an NCO to lead a shop that was outside of his career field,” his widow said He had served in the Air Force for six years “For the court to rule it was incident to service even though they acknowledged there was no military activity at the time of his death The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has relisted for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here The court also declined to take up a number of repeatedly relisted cases in each case prompting opinions discussing the decision to deny and three dissents In Wilson v. Hawaii, the court denied review of a Second Amendment challenge to Hawaiis handgun-licensing scheme. Thomas, joined by Alito, wrote an opinion regarding the denial in which he argued that the Hawaii regime wrongly reduces the Second Amendment to a second-class right while at the same time agreeing that denial was warranted because of the cases interlocutory posture Justice Neil Gorsuch also filed an opinion regarding the denial in which he suggested that the Hawaii Supreme Court had not fairly grappled with the defendants Second Amendment defense to the possession conviction Alito and Thomas dissented from the denial of review contending that the court of appeals had erred in its analysis and urging the court to reject root and branch this dangerously distorted view of disparate impact First up among the new relists this week is Apache Stronghold v. United States Western Apaches have focused their worship on a small site of federally owned land in Arizona called Chchil Bidagoteel their corridor to the Creator and the only locus of certain sacred ceremonies Oak Flat is also the site of a campground owned by the Forest Service and cordoned off from private development by Congress in the 1950s After the third-largest reserve of copper in the world was discovered beneath Oak Flat the government decided to transfer the site to a private mining corporation Congress attached a rider to a major spending bill authorizing a land exchange between the U.S an advocacy group created by members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe went to federal court in an effort to stop the transfer The group argued that the land exchange would result in the destruction of the sacred site and thereby infringe upon the tribes First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion They argued that the exchange would also violate the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act which requires courts to closely scrutinize federal actions that substantially burden religious free exercise An Arizona federal district court rejected the groups request to stop the land exchange, and the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed that ruling. The court of appeals held that the First Amendment challenge was foreclosed by Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association which permitted Congress to sell off public lands that were sacred to an indigenous tribe although the transfer here would significantly interfere with the tribes ability to practice its religion the governments actions did not violate the Constitution because they did not coerce members of the tribe into acting contrary to their religious beliefs The 9th Circuit concluded that RFRA did not change that outcome because Congress passed the law against the backdrop of that decision In Apache Stronghold the group seeks reversal of the 9th Circuits decision arguing that the plain meaning of a substantial[] burden on religious worship under RFRA includes an action that would effectively prohibit that worship altogether it argues that RFRA overrides the Supreme Courts prior decision on public lands because that decision only applied to generally applicable laws that incidentally burden religion — which Congress intentionally did away with when enacting the 1993 law The government and Resolution Mining urge the justices to leave the 9th Circuits ruling in place Wisconsin law exempts from its state unemployment tax system certain religious organizations that are operated or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches and that are also operated primarily for religious purposes is a nonprofit corporation and the social ministry arm of the Catholic Diocese of Superior Its mission is [t]o carry on the redeeming work of our Lord by reflecting gospel values and the moral teaching of the church by providing services to the poor and disadvantaged as an expression of the social ministry of the Catholic Church The bishop of the diocese of Superior controls Catholic Charities Catholic Charities sought a determination from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development that it was exempt from state unemployment taxes Various decisionmakers in the administrative review process ruled both for and against Catholic Charities but the final decisionmaker (the state Labor and Industry Review Commission) concluded that Catholic Charities provide[] essentially secular services and engage[] in activities that are not religious per se and thus did not qualify for the exemption The Wisconsin Supreme Court ultimately upheld the denial of the exemption holding that the statutory criteria focused on typical forms of religious exercise: whether the entity proselytized whether it participated in worship services It therefore concluded that Catholic Charities did not qualify because it did not attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith and its services are open to all participants regardless of religion could constitutionally be applied against Catholic Charities Several dissenting justices argued that the majoritys test put courts in the constitutionally tenuous position of second-guessing the religious significance and character of a nonprofits actions In Catholic Charities Bureau, Inc. v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission Catholic Charities argues that state courts of last resort are divided on whether the states may consistent with the First Amendments free exercise and establishment clauses deny church organizations a tax exemption because they do not engage in typical religious activities to avoid infringing on religious observance focus on whether an organizations activities are motivated by sincere religious belief four other state supreme courts (including Wisconsins) have held that state agencies can review the religious organizations activities to determine whether they are typical religious behavior without running afoul of the constitution Catholic Charities say that the latter test violates the First Amendment by favoring some religions over others Ryan Carter was a member of the National Guard and he spent most of his time in civilian employment Carter had surgery at a military hospital to address a longstanding spinal condition When Carter sued, the district court dismissed his case, relying on the Feres doctrine. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed that dismissal. In Carter v. United States, he now seeks review arguing that the Feres doctrine does not itself apply to inactive military personnel and should not be extended to plaintiffs who were not then under military orders; and in any event Thomas has been trying for years to persuade his colleagues to revisit Feres; well find out soon if hes finally succeeded Posted in Cases in the Pipeline This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page a 20-horse field has been entered for Saturday’s 1 1/2-mile Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional (G1) at Hipodromo de San Isidro outside Buenos Aires The winner of South America’s most prestigious race will earn an automatic starting position in next year’s $5 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and In.The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the 2025 Breeders’ Cup World Championships Calif.The Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional is the first Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series race of the 2025 season Juan Antonio’s 4-year-old El Kodigo has been the top older horse in Argentina this year and has won six of his last seven starts for trainer Juan Saldivia El Kodigo has demonstrated equal prowess in winning on turf and dirt 7 General San Martin (G1) on turf and then dominating the Oct he captured the Copa de Oro – Alfredo Lalor (G1) by 1 1/2 lengths over Jazz Seiver with Intense for Me (ARG) finishing third.Sporting a record of eight wins in 12 starts El Kodigo will break from the extreme outside post 20 under Gustavo Calvente.Stud Jet Set’s Don Feres has been the top horse in Peru for the past two years Don Feres won his first five races of the 2022-2023 season en route to becoming Peru’s champion grass horse The son of Singe Turf (IRE) has captured his last four starts this year including his most recent Group 2 scores in the Oct 13 Clasico Almirante Miguel Grau Seminario and the Nov 2 Clasico Presidente de la Republica at 1 1/2 miles he has solid experience over the San Isidro course finishing second in the 2023 Longines Gran Premio Latinoamericano (G1) He will be from post 12 by leading South American jockey Carlos Trujillo Among the 3-year-olds who figure to be prominent in the weight-for-age race are Stud Macul’s Acento Final (ARG) and Haras El Angel de Venecia’s Honest Boy (ARG) They were the first two finishers in the controversial 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club (G1) on Oct which was the second jewel of Argentina’s Triple Crown Acento Final took the lead inside the final furlong of the Jockey Club at San Isidro and appeared to force the fast-closing Honest Boy to check in the final yards Acento Final will be ridden by Kevin Baneagas from post 4 will be making just his fifth start for trainer Juan Etchechoury who has saddled winners in two of the last three editions of Pellegrini 14 American Lion Award prior to the Jockey Club Ivan Monasterolo has the mount from post 13.Starting from post 1 is another 3-year-old who won the 2015 Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini stepped up to 12 furlongs for the first time in the Nov Grezzo will be ridden by Eduardo Pavon.Stud Las Monjitas’s 5-year-old Jazz Seiver made a strong closing burst from 11th place to finish second in last year’s race as the 9-5 favorite the Juan Manual Etchechoury-trained son Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Super Saver has won two of five starts highlighted by his second Group 1 triumph in the De Honor-Copa Julio y Carlos Menditeguy on April 6 at Hipodromo Argentino He will be ridden by Francisco Fernandez from post 7 Stud Toroquemero’s 4-year-old Intense for Me has finished in the top three in his last seven starts the son of Fortify has won two Group 2 stakes this year at San Isidro and followed up that performance with a 4-length win in the 1 1/8-mile Forli on June 2 breaking from post 18.As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series Breeders’ Cup will pay the entry fees for the winner of the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional to start in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf Breeders’ Cup will also provide a travel allowance for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships The Challenge winner must be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program by the pre-entry deadline of Oct and the debates surrounding trainer Bob Baffert Led by multiple group winners El Kodigo and Don Feres a 20-horse field has been entered for Saturday's 1 1/2-mile Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional (G1) at Hipodromo de San Isidro outside Buenos Aires The winner of South America's most prestigious race will earn an automatic starting position in next year's $5 million Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) through the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In.  The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series is an international series of stakes races whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race of the 2025 Breeders' Cup World Championships, scheduled to be held Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Del Mar in California The Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini Internacional is the first Breeders' Cup Challenge Series race for the 2025 event Sporting a record of eight wins in 12 starts El Kodigo will break from the extreme outside post 20 under Gustavo Calvente Sign up for BloodHorse Daily Stud Jet Set's Don Feres has been the top horse in Peru for the past two years, accumulating nine wins in 13 starts. Trained by Juan Suarez, Don Feres won his first five races of the 2022-23 season en route to becoming Peru's champion grass horse. The son of Singe The Turf  has captured his last four starts this year including his most recent group 2 scores in the Oct 13 Clasico Almirante Miguel Grau Seminario (G2) and the Nov 10 Clasico Presidente de la Republica (G2) at 1 1/2 miles finishing second in the 2023 Gran Premio Latinoamericano (G1) He will be ridden from post 12 by leading South American jockey Carlos Trujillo Acento Final will be ridden by Kevin Banegas from post 4 who has saddled winners in two of the last three editions of the Carlos Pellegrini Ivan Monasterolo has the mount from post 13 Starting from post 1 is another 3-year-old, La Providencia's Grezzo, a son of Hi Happy  stepped up to 1 1/2 miles for the first time in the Nov highlighted by his second group 1 triumph in the De Honor-Copa Julio y Carlos Menditeguy (G1) April 6 at Hipodromo Argentino He will be ridden by Francisco Fernandez Goncalves from post 7 Stud Toroquemero's 4-year-old Intense for Me has finished in the top three in his last seven starts. Trained by Nicolas Martin, the son of Fortify  has won two group 2 stakes this year at San Isidro and followed up that performance with a four-length win in the 1 1/8-mile Forli June 2 Jenna Sundel is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey She has in-depth knowledge of crime and courts She is a graduate of Montclair State University You can get in touch with Jenna by emailing j.sundel@newsweek.com either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court should overrule or limit a 75-year-old ruling in a dissent published on Monday is not liable for injuries sustained by members of the armed forces while they were on active duty The decision said the government could still be held responsible for claims that were not "injuries incident to military service." The Supreme Court has denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of Ryan G meaning that the justices declined to hear the appeal from a lower court Carter was a dual-status military technician and inactive-duty staff sergeant in the Air National Guard reserves He suffered from a degenerative neck condition and underwent elective neck surgery at a military hospital in 2018 he sustained an injury to his spinal cord that left him paralyzed in all four limbs alleging that the government was responsible for the medical staff's negligence The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Carter's suit was barred under Feres because he was a military member being treated at a military hospital Thomas said that Carter's case should proceed "Had Carter been a veteran rather than an inactive-duty reservist he unquestionably could have filed suit for the same injuries arising from the same treatment by the same military staff at the same military hospital," Thomas wrote Thomas said that lower courts have "struggled" to apply the exception allowed under Feres "The result is that courts arbitrarily deprive injured service members and their families of a remedy that Congress provided them," he said Thomas argued that hearing the case would have allowed the court to overturn or limit the Feres ruling in his dissent: "The Feres doctrine has no basis in the text of the FTCA and its policy-based justifications make little sense It has been almost universally condemned by judges and scholars." Thomas offered advice to lower courts on how to apply the Feres decision when hearing cases "Do not look for a principled explanation for our Feres case law; there is nothing to find simply ask whether a controlling decision has held that the Feres doctrine barred suit under materially indistinguishable circumstances Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering Do you have any questions about this story Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair Hold us accountable and submit your rating of this article on the meter. Newsletters in your inbox See all Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedIn(InvestigateTV) — The Supreme Court has issued a new blow to active-duty service members hoping to seek justice following cases of medical malpractice at the hands of military doctors In an order posted Monday the court denied a petition to hear the case of former Staff Sergeant Ryan Carter Carter served for more than a decade in the Maryland Air National Guard He was previously the subject of an InvestigateTV report looking into the inability of active-duty service members to sue the government for malpractice and digging into the lack of transparency in the military healthcare system As InvestigateTV previously reported Carter underwent elective spine surgery in 2018 at the nation’s premier military facility - Walter Reed National Military Medical Center The procedure was intended to improve chronic neck pain but instead left him paralyzed Attorney filings obtained by InvestigateTV claimed military doctors were negligent during Carter’s surgery listing 22 specific claims of failures related to everything from anesthesia to aftercare he could have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the providers involved in his case But a decades-old court decision known as the Feres doctrine has effectively banned active-duty service members from suing the military for malpractice ‘We should fix the mess that we have made’ In the latest effort to challenge the decision, Carter’s attorney, Chris Casciano filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear his case But that petition was denied in a list of decisions released early Monday Justice Clarence Thomas offered the dissent opinion saying he hoped one day the Supreme Court would overturn Feres indicating it has been almost universally condemned by judges and legal scholars and senseless as a matter of policy,” Thomas wrote InvestigateTV has spent years investigating medical malpractice within the military healthcare system discovering the names of providers involved in those cases are shielded from public view - leaving service members and their families in the dark about problem providers Our reporting uncovered hundreds of providers reported to a confidential data bank that stores disciplinary action malpractice payments and other information about problematic doctors and nurses InvestigateTV sought reaction to the Supreme Court decision from Ryan Carter and his attorney but has not yet heard back By clicking “Submit” you agree to our terms and conditions regarding your information and image in our Publicity Release and Copyright License, Terms and Conditions Watch the InvestigateTV Livestream above or click here to see more InvestigateTV content on our YouTube channel The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request for the justices to review a ban on service members suing the military for medical malpractice that was submitted by a veteran who was paralyzed during a surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center we should fix the mess that we have made,” Thomas wrote He also described the law in his 14-page opinion as “indefensible,” “senseless,” and “not a rational way of protecting military discipline and decision making.” “Do not look for a principled explanation for our Feres case law; there is nothing to find.” asked the Supreme Court last year to rule on whether his lawsuit against the military hospital in Bethesda While serving in the Maryland Air National Guard Carter went to the hospital in April 2018 for a back surgery to alleviate chronic neck pain His spinal cord endured trauma during the surgery and he has never walked again He was not on active duty at the time of the surgery Carter attempted to file a lawsuit against the military for the botched surgery but it has been thrown out over the Feres Doctrine which has been used to prevent military medical malpractice lawsuits since 1950 it also has limited the ability of people to bring military rape cases to civil courts Congress created a method to take legal action against the federal government for negligence to its employees through the Federal Tort Claims Act the law leaves out “claims arising out of the combatant activities of the military … during time of war.” this has been interpreted as anything connected to a service member’s time in uniform cannot be the basis of a lawsuit “The court has never articulated a coherent justification for this exception and the lower courts for decades have struggled to apply it,” Thomas wrote “The result is that courts arbitrarily deprive injured service members and their families of a remedy that Congress provided them.” The Supreme Court receives more than 7,000 petitions such as Carter’s each year and only selects about 100 for review Four of the nine justices must agree to accept a case and there is typically not a dissent written about each denial said he was disappointed with the decision who was not immediately available for comment Monday While they all knew it was a longshot to get the case before the court their main goal was to push the issue as far forward as possible The case received support briefs filed by lawmakers and more than a dozen veterans organizations “There’s a lot of momentum that we saw over the last six months is pretty telling about the gravity of what’s going on There’s a lot of people who have an interest here who want to see something change,” he said “It showed just how significant and important this issue is and it’s not just some niche thing that no one really cares about.” Casciano said he will now turn his attention to an administrative claim that he has filed on Carter’s behalf with the Defense Department Congress in 2019 passed a law to allow service members to file administrative malpractice claims through their service branch the service member cannot take their case to the courts though Congress carved out an exception for claims related to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Family members of those who lost their lives in the January 29 plane crash in Washington have spoken out on the need for urgent reforms by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "We as a group can never go back to just getting on a plane and trusting that everything will be OK," said Rachel Feres whose cousin Peter Livingston was onboard Flight 5342 with his wife "I would like every other traveler out there to be able to do that though and to be able to trust that they're going to be OK and that every consideration has been taken for their safety," she continued Feres spoke with Newsweek alongside Amy Hunter and son Spencer were among the 67 people who died when the passenger plane collided with an Army helicopter the deadliest in American aviation in more than two decades the three have been pushing for the government particularly the country's aviation watchdog to address the issues that led to the loss of their loved ones the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a report detailing the preliminary findings of its investigation into the D.C after making a series of "urgent" recommendations on military-civilian airspace coordination for the FAA The board's investigation found that near misses between helicopters and planes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) occurred at least monthly between 2011 and 2024 The NTSB found that helicopter routes established by the FAA lacked "defined lateral boundaries." Consequently between October 2021 and December 2024 at DCA there were 15,214 instances where airplanes and helicopters had a lateral separation of less than one nautical mile and a vertical separation of under 400 feet the NTSB identified 85 cases where the lateral separation was less than 1,500 feet and the vertical separation was under 200 feet "Both of those were just eye-popping statistics that have a lot of us really questioning how such a cascading set of systemic failures could possibly happen," Lane said "They found over 15,000 instances of near misses of this nature the exact same nature as the one that affected our families "So if that happens a couple of times a month for three years it was really just a matter of time before a disaster like this occurred." "How did the FAA not know," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference following the NTSB report "How did they not study the data to say: 'Hey The NTSB urged the FAA to permanently prohibit helicopters from flying along a section of Route 4—a commonly used path over the Potomac River—during times when planes are making a low descent to land on DCA's Runway 33 as Flight 5342 was attempting to do on January 29 It also requested that the agency designate alternative helicopter routes for pilots around DCA Duffy said on Tuesday that the FAA would accept both recommendations "The existing separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft landing on Runway 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a midair collision at DCA," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference on Tuesday Commenting on whether the FAA was to blame for the loss of his wife and son Lane said: "I think certainly they're a major party at fault here both in terms of how they designed the airspace and the rules that were governing how flights in this specific airport were allowed to occur on an ongoing basis." "One of the things that I found really horrifying is discovering that the NTSB has been making safety recommendations to the FAA for years that have gone unimplemented," Feres said "You trust that when disasters occur and we find the cause that somebody is going to go remediate it And this has completely shaken my faith that that process happens." Newsweek has contacted the FAA for comment via email Less than a month after the D.C. crash, the families read reports that a Southwest jet attempting to land at Chicago Midway International Airport narrowly avoided colliding with a private plane and they realized that the separation issue was not limited to DCA and we're now just starting to learn about it," Lane said He described the January 29 crash as "really just the Pandora's box in terms of the number of near misses that have been happening throughout the United States that haven't been acted on by the FAA." the families said they had been reassured by the diligence and commitment of the NTSB throughout the process "The NTSB has inspired tremendous faith in our families for the work that they're doing," Hunter said "Their professionalism and compassion have been a gift in what is the worst moment of people's lives." The families have refrained from blaming any one administration for the crash "This is an issue that's happened across many different administrations," Hunter said This is a safety issue—a public safety issue." Evidence of the bipartisan support for aviation safety came when Hunter visited Capitol Hill shortly after the crash seeking to raise awareness of the necessary reforms and advocate for congressional hearings on the matter were more than willing to speak with them about their concerns "We went and knocked on doors and literally never got a no answer," she said it was very inspiring to see that it was a nonpartisan issue." chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation is scheduled to lead a hearing to discuss the findings of the NTSB report Witnesses set to appear include Homendy and acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau Lane said the voluntary and "haphazard nature" of reporting and addressing aviation close calls at the FAA must be reformed he hoped for a situation in which these were not merely advisory "I would like to see some kind of compulsory requirement for them." said he was considering taking direct legal action against the FAA "It's likely something that will be coming but it's not something that I've done yet," he said "I think you can expect to see quite a few of the families take a similar approach with that." Feres added that while legal action was one avenue of accountability for the tragedy "there is another form of accountability that comes with necessary change." "I want to be able to get on a plane again and feel confident that everything has been done to make sure that me and my family land safely on the other side," she said Feres continued: "I want that for the people who are paying attention to this story That's what feels like a good outcome in this." Nearly two dozen veterans advocacy groups and six lawmakers are requesting the Supreme Court hear the case of a retired Air National Guardsman who wants to sue the military after a routine back surgery left him paralyzed from the chest down. “The Feres Doctrine cannot be allowed to continue enabling and protecting medical malpractice in the military,” Army veteran Lauren Palladini said, referring to a ruling by the Supreme Court that bars service members from suing the military for anything related to their time in service. Carter, 49, served in the Maryland Air National Guard and was not on orders in April 2018 when he went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., for a back surgery to alleviate chronic neck pain. His spinal cord endured trauma during the surgery, and he has never walked again. He filed a petition earlier this year for the Supreme Court to hear his case and reconsider the Feres Doctrine, which has been used to prevent military medical malpractice lawsuits since 1950 and has even limited the ability of people to bring military rape cases to civil courts for recourse. Congress in 2019 passed a law to allow service members to file malpractice claims through their service branch. If the service denies the claim, the service member cannot take their case to the courts. Congress has also made an exception for claims related to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. “Congress never intended this injustice, but the time is right to fix the problem,” said Palladini, who nearly lost her life and was severely injured during a routine cesarean section surgery at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Liberty, N.C. The brief filed by Coalition of Heroes includes five members of Congress, four military retirees and 19 other veterans groups, including the Reserve Organization of America and the National Military Families Association. Those congressmen are Reps. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., Josh Harder, D-Calif., Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “The Feres Doctrine is legally incorrect, unfair, and a threat to our national security,” said Kristina Baehr, an attorney who wrote the brief on behalf of Coalition of Heroes. “According to the judge-made doctrine, a mom injured by a negligent doctor during her baby’s delivery is not entitled to recovery in court because she is a service member. But if she were a spouse, she could bring a claim. This injustice discourages good men and women from joining the service in the first place.” The second brief was written by attorney Natalie Khawam Case, who represents Master Sgt. Richard Stayskal, an Army Green Beret suffering from terminal lung cancer. It was his case that inspired Congress to act in 2019 to carve medical malpractice claims out of the Feres Doctrine. However, when Stayskal submitted his own claim, it was denied. The original Feres decision used the term “incident to service” to identify claims that cannot be filed by service members, and Khawam Case argued this loosely defined term has been abused to deny access to the courts. “This has frustrated legislators and judges alike, as injured and deceased soldiers and their families sit helpless, unable to fight back against rape, murder, and other crimes for which civilians would immediately be able to sue,” she wrote in the brief to the court. This would end if Carter’s case were heard by the Supreme Court and ultimately reversed, she wrote. A third brief was filed in June to support Carter’s case by the National Veteran Legal Services Program and Save Our Servicemembers, two veteran advocacy groups. The Supreme Court receives more than 7,000 petitions like Carter’s each year and only selects about 100 for review. Four of the nine justices must agree to accept a case, and the justices typically do not release a statement on why a case isn’t selected. Staff Sgt. Ryan Carter walked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on April 6, 2018, for a common back surgery meant to alleviate chronic neck pain. He never walked again. A former information technology airman for the Maryland Air National Guard, Carter has limited use of his left arm but is otherwise paralyzed from the chest down. In the years since his surgery, he and his wife Kathleen Cole have fought two battles: Carter learning to live as a quadriplegic in need of round-the-clock care and suing the military hospital and surgeon for the trauma his spinal cord suffered during the operation that resulted in his paralysis. Carter’s attorney Christopher Casciano filed a petition June 5 with the Supreme Court to revisit a ruling that it made more than 70 years ago known commonly as the Feres Doctrine which bars service members from suing the Defense Department for injuries suffered while in the military. He’s worked with Carter on six previous filings for administrative claims or civil suits that were required to get to the Supreme Court as the final stop for his case. Each was denied or dismissed. The final dismissal came from the Fourth Circuit Court of Criminal Appeals, which heard oral arguments on the case in January. The three-judge panel cited a 1989 court decision that found Feres applies to service members on excess leave and receiving medical treatment from military doctors. “I’m doing this because I got injured, obviously, but this is not just for me. We’re doing this for everybody else, for people that come after me,” Carter, 49, said during a call from his home in Tampa, Fla., where he and his wife moved in 2021 to be close to a Department of Veterans Affairs facility that specializes in spinal cord rehabilitation. He had previously spent time in a facility in Colorado and has never been able to return to his previous home in Baltimore. The Feres Doctrine has been used to prevent military medical malpractice lawsuits since 1950 and has even limited the ability of people to bring military rape cases to civil courts for recourse. Congress in 2019 passed a law to allow service members to file malpractice claims through their service branch. If the service denies the claim, the service member cannot take their case to the courts. The Federal Tort Claims Act, first established in 1946, is the means for people to take legal action against the federal government for negligence to its employees. However, the law leaves out “claims arising out of the combatant activities of the military … during time of war.” In its Feres v. the United States decision in 1950, the Supreme Court expanded interpretation of the statute to include injuries that are “incident to service,” a broad description that has come to encompass nearly everything in military life. Since the military began accepting medical malpractice claims in 2020, the Army has received 258 claims, the Navy and Marines have received 193, and the Air Force 134. Of those, the Army has approved 12, the Navy three and the Air Force six. They have denied 81, 103, and 71, respectively, while the rest remain pending or in appeal. “That legislative effort to somehow deal with Feres is just absolute nonsense,” Casciano said. “None of those service members or family members have access to the courts because all the government has to do is deny their claim. They can’t appeal it. They can’t file in the circuit court, and they’re just sitting there. Those cases are just sitting there.” Cole, 57, said suing is “to have that acknowledgment of the fact that our whole world has changed.” Carter had just finished a seven-month activation with the Air Force on March 13, 2018, and decided to have an orthopedic spine procedure called an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Carter hoped it would help with his cervical spondylotic myelopathy, a neurological condition that frequently develops in adults as the spine compresses over time. The disease caused chronic pain in his neck, and numbness and tingling in his hands. The surgery is common in the United States and is performed on average about 132,000 times a year, according to the Cleveland Clinic, a medical research and education facility in Ohio. Carter weighed having surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore but instead chose Walter Reed in Bethesda, Md., he said because of the reputation of the military facility. Presidents go there for treatment, he said. “There was nothing distinctively military about the surgery or the care provided to Mr. Carter,” Casciano wrote in his Supreme Court petition. During the procedure, Carter sustained an injury to his spinal cord. When he woke up afterward, he was unable to move his arms and legs. He underwent a second emergency operation the same day and was then sent to the intensive care unit where he was intubated and sedated. After three weeks in intensive care at Walter Reed, Carter transferred to the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va., where he would spend the next year in rehabilitation therapy for his spinal cord injury. About once a month, members of Carter’s unit would make the more than three-hour drive from Baltimore to visit with him. They would take Cole out for lunch and ask her how she was doing and what she needed. During one of the visits, Guard members held a ceremony for Carter to promote him to the rank of technical sergeant. He had earned the qualifications prior to the surgery, but the moment came unexpectedly, he said. “Oh, my goodness. It’s hard thinking of [that day],” said Carter, who intended to serve until he was eligible for retirement. “They didn’t have to do that.” While in Richmond, Carter’s military status was changed, and Casciano said this might be the key to helping their case catch the attention of the Supreme Court. On June 27, 2018, the Air National Guard retroactively changed Carter from inactive duty to active duty, according to court documents. The orders backdated his active status to March 14, 2018. “Mr. Carter was arguably more akin to a veteran than an active-duty service member,” Casciano said. “He was inactive, no orders, no duties, no mission, and 82 days after his injury, the government retroactively changes his military status.” Previous court filings on the case were all dismissed before evidence gathering, the attorney said, so he can only speculate why it was done. Active duty afforded financial and medical benefits to Carter, but it also has triggered the Feres Doctrine, Casciano said. Maj. Ben Hughes, spokesman for the Maryland Air National Guard, said Friday that Carter was on medical continuation orders, which allow for medical coverage related to military service. “We continue to send our sincere condolences to his family and all who knew him,” he said. Carter’s petition asks the court to review two questions. Should Feres bar medical malpractice claims when the service member was not on active duty or was retroactively placed on active duty? Also, should Feres be clarified, limited or overruled? In recent years, there often has been at least one case involving Feres among the roughly 8,000 petitions submitted to the Supreme Court for review, said Michael Wishnie, a professor at Yale Law School. Of all petitions, less than 100 are granted, and it is rare for the court to say why a petition wasn’t selected. However, in 2021, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a short dissent when the court denied a petition from Wishnie regarding the case of a former cadet of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. The cadet said she was raped at the academy and sued over inadequate prevention policies. “At a minimum, we should take up this case to clarify the scope of the immunity we have created. Without any statutory text to serve as a guide, lower courts are understandably confused about what counts as an injury ‘incident’ to military service,” Thomas wrote. The Supreme Court’s lack of action on the Feres Doctrine could mean the court thinks if its ruling on that statute is wrong, Congress can act and fix by passing a law, Wishnie said. “The risk is that narrow congressional amendments may confirm the justices’ view that when Congress has thought about injuries to service members recently, they have not done a wholesale rewrite to overturn Feres. They just made these technical adjustments, which, to some members of the court, may be evidence that Congress basically agrees with Feres,” Wishnie said. “It is lazy of the court to leave it to Congress to fix,” Wishnie said. “If the court granted [a petition], I suspect a majority of the court would agree with Justice Thomas that Feres was wrongly decided.” Carter and Cole said they knew their legal battle would take years and would not be easy. Living in Tampa, the couple are isolated from the network of family and friends developed over a lifetime in Baltimore. The VA affords him home health care workers, but staff shortages in the industry means there are some days where Carter cannot get out of bed because there is no one able to help him. With neither of them able to work, they can’t afford a van to accommodate Carter’s wheelchair. Cole can’t travel anywhere because she has no backup support to stay with her husband. “It’s totally isolating at times,” she said. Part of Carter’s care includes weekly mental therapy. “When I was going through this initially, I thought about [my wife] and what she was going through,” he said. “That’s the main part of my [post-traumatic stress disorder].” In the next month, Casciano said he’s advocating for military organizations with an interest in Feres to get involved and submit letters to the court in support for the petition. Previous Feres cases have not gotten past this petition stage, so he hopes documented support can help. Carter and Cole said their legal efforts to hold the military accountable for his injury has not created any animosity toward the service. Rather, it’s the opposite. “I think they are special people that join the military and are willing to basically lose their lives or sacrifice their livelihood,” Cole said. Volume 5 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fdmed.2024.1398897 This article is part of the Research TopicUnique and Shared Predictive Biomarkers of Oral and Systemic DiseasesView all articles This narrative review aims to discuss the incorporation of novel medical concepts and tools into dental practice with the goal of improving early diagnosis and exploring new personalized treatment options for oral pathologies Preventative dental approaches concentrate on the timely detection of oral infections and the integration of biomarker analysis to recognize pathogenic changes at early stage of disease periodic monitoring after the treatment is relevant to ensure the balance in the oral biofilms and prevent relapse more attention has shifted towards the contributing factors to disease development vitamin D and zinc pre- and post-operatively are employed to boost immune function and reduce the risk of postoperative infections are utilized to help minimize excessive inflammation and promote faster recovery The data presented in this manuscript emphasize the crucial integration of innovative healthcare concepts and tools into dental practices By adopting a more holistic view of the patient clinicians can tailor treatments to each individual's predispositions This review also highlights the potential of salivary biomarkers and point-of-care technologies in enhancing early diagnostic accuracy and personalizing treatment Bridging the gap between oral and systemic health is the most effective approach to improving patient quality of life These findings underscore the importance of continued interdisciplinary collaboration in dentistry Overview of factors contributing to decreased oral health (left red arrows) and factors enhancing dental health (right Future studies should focus on determining the optimal combination of biomarkers that would allow for the early diagnosis of periodontitis as well as those that could be used to monitor treatment or serve as endpoints for treatments Specifically, periodontitis and periodontal pathogens have been associated with diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, obesity, eating disorders, liver disease, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer disease, rheumatoid arthritis, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and cancer (24–26) Cardiovascular disease symptoms and diabetes mellitus are part of the metabolic syndrome cluster, alongside obesity. Obesity results in an imbalance between increased inflammatory stimuli, reduced anti-inflammatory mechanisms, and persistent low-grade inflammation, triggering periodontitis and further obesity status. Obese patients are 50%–80% more likely to develop of periodontitis compared to non-obese individuals (33, 34) Summary of the supplement nutrients impacting periodontal health Vitamin E plays a crucial role in oral health maintenance by inhibiting the reaction of free radicals, thereby aiding in membrane stabilization. Beyond its antioxidant property, vitamin E has demonstrated positive effects on periodontal health by intruding on the prostaglandins’ synthesis, which is helpful in reducing inflammation level and improving wound healing (47) In a recent study conducted by Chakraborty et al., it was revealed that iron-deficiency anemia is linked to a decline in antioxidant enzymes, leading to increased oxidative stress and a worsening of periodontal diseases (51) Zinc is reported to decrease the sulcular epithelial permeability by inhibiting the leukocyte activity, thus decreasing gingival inflammation via decreasing gingival fluids. Furthermore, it was noticed that zinc acts to counteract reactive oxygen species and bacterial toxins, promoting healthy periodontium (52) emphasizing the importance of patient awareness as well as integration of marker screening and nutritional monitoring in patients’ treatment approaches to support improved clinical outcomes Exemplar workflow of a dental treatment plan with integrated personalized approach The development of new point-of-care technologies has revolutionized the way clinicians can test marker levels directly in their offices, eliminating the need for external laboratories involvement. This advancement not only allows for rapid diagnostics but also facilitates the formulation of personalized treatment plan (Figure 3) reducing chair time in dental offices improves efficiency and productivity for staff while potentially enhancing the overall patient's dental experience as patients commonly associate dental procedures with discomfort patients are spared the inconvenience of scheduling additional appointments at external laboratories and then returning to the dental office for further consultations shorter chair time may contribute to more efficient scheduling and better outcomes it can guide and triage the patient to any follow up or consultation in medical practice that are necessary post-screening promotes pre-appointment preparation and excludes any additional testing reducing likelihood of missed cancer screening or skipped appointments for patients with limited time available reducing chair time encourages patients to prioritize their oral health and ensures that they receive the necessary care promptly Overview of personalized medicine approaches in the dental health practice The ultimate goal is to integrate oral health into overall health acknowledging the relationship between oral and systemic well-being This review emphasizes the crucial integration of innovative healthcare concepts and tools into dental practices The data also highlights the potential of salivary biomarkers and point-of-care technologies in enhancing early diagnostic accuracy and personalizing treatment The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author KN: Writing – review & editing The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Embracing personalized medicine in dentistry PubMed Abstract | Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar PubMed Abstract | Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar Role of microbial biofilms in the maintenance of oral health and in the development of dental caries and periodontal diseases Consensus report of group 1 of the joint EFP/ORCA workshop on the boundaries between caries and periodontal disease (2017) 44(Suppl 18):S5–S11.28266109 Dental biofilm: ecological interactions in health and disease PubMed Abstract | Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar Dental biofilm infections—an update PubMed Abstract | Crossref Full Text | Google Scholar Biosensor and lab-on-a-chip biomarker-identifying technologies for oral and periodontal diseases Salivary 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Larissa Steigmann, bGFyaXNzYV9zdGVpZ21hbm5AaHNkbS5oYXJ2YXJkLmVkdQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Since the start of 2024 orange juice prices have gone up by 30% according to Trading Economics SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Grocery prices have gone up and orange juice prices in particular have put the squeeze on buyers "Prices are as high as they've ever been," said Yuri Feres Brazil Director for the Rainforest Alliance The Rainforest Alliance says the spike in price is largely caused by issues in Brazil Brazil accounts for 75% of the orange juice exports worldwide As many orange farms have dealt with severe drought this year others are also being destroyed by disease “It’s called greening and it’s caused by a bacteria that has infested crops all over the world," said Feres Experts say one of the only ways to fight the current orange tree blight is to burn down orchards and start over It takes 2 to 3 years to grown an orange tree which means prices aren't likely to go down anytime soon To compensate for the low supply and high demand some orange juice makers are mixing other citrus fruits to oranges to make OJ Drought is also causing increased prices for coffee and chocolate of Agriculture predicts food prices will rise 2.2% this year America is disconnected from veterans and military families On the nine-hour drive from their home in California’s central valley to the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton Peter Vienna and his wife wondered what had happened to their son They knew only that there had been a training accident Gnem had enlisted in the Navy three and a half years earlier After training as a corpsman—a medic—he’d embarked on a career path serving alongside Marine rifle teams “He could have stayed stateside and just worked in hospitals holds the portrait of Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class (Fleet Marine Force) Christopher Gnem during a memorial service at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton The service was held in remembrance of the eight Marines and one sailor from Bravo Company who died in an assault amphibious vehicle mishap off the coast of San Clemente Island They had been training near San Clemente Island had practiced maneuvering amphibious assault vehicles ahead of an upcoming deployment Vienna learned when he made it to Camp Pendleton It eventually sank to the bottom of the ocean with eight men trapped inside Vienna and his wife stayed at Camp Pendleton for several weeks while the Marine Corps confirmed their son had died inside the assault vehicle and wasn’t missing at sea Then the Corps brought in specialized equipment to recover the AAV and the bodies inside that rested nearly 400 feet below the ocean’s surface Vienna and his wife thought it was just a tragic accident “We started hearing 40-year-old vehicles were supposed to have been taken offline years ago,” Vienna says “We were starting to hear little bits and pieces of things that have come out this tragic mishap was preventable,” the general overseeing Marine Corps Forces Pacific wrote the doctrine has protected the military from lawsuits over things like training mishaps there’s no chance to be heard,” Vienna says with a judge writing that the alleged assault could not “further any conceivable military purpose.” it marks a departure from decades of courts doubling down on the Feres doctrine “It’s the first time in a long time where the courts have taken a hard look at Feres and rolled it back and said that it needs to be limited in its scope,” Dwight Stirling the founder of the Center for Law and Military Policy and a law professor at the University of Southern California do you get lesser rights in terms of getting to court than those who don’t wear the uniform?” The wives of the men who were killed sued the government for allowing their husbands to sleep in a barracks with a faulty heater two other cases were working their way through the judicial system both involving soldiers who had been victims of botched surgeries while in the Army civilian surgeons pulled a 30-inch-long towel from inside a man’s abdomen The towel was stamped “Medical Department U.S Army.” Both cases alleged that Army doctors had been negligent In 1946, the Federal Tort Claims Act opened the door to lawsuits against the government in cases of negligence or wrongdoing But the act exempted claims resulting from combat the Supreme Court combined the three lawsuits and issued a ruling extending that exemption to peacetime military members cannot bring a claim against the government or the military for wrongs incurred in the course of their military service “They created this exemption that any activity or negligence or cause of action that arises … in the conduct of military activities or ‘incident to service’ will be barred,” VanLandingham says “And they didn’t define ‘incident to service.’” Katie Blanchard speaks with a nurse before surgery Sept at Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center A coworker Blanchard had reported as threatening poured gasoline over her and lit her on fire Blanchard could not recover damages from the government because of the Feres Doctrine The government moved to dismiss the case based on Feres the Central District Court of California ruled in favor of Spletstoser Spletstoser describes an incident in which Hyten allegedly assaulted her while the two traveled together which Spletstoser said occurred in a civilian hotel room while she tried to get ready for bed could not be considered “incident to military service.” “Regardless of whether General Hyten came to Plaintiff’s hotel room under the pretense of work-related purposes it is not conceivable that his military duties would require him to sexually assault Plaintiff or that such an assault would advance any conceivable military objective,” the court wrote Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision Hyten’s lawyers can still appeal to the Ninth Circuit for an “en banc” ruling which means the entire bench would consider the case rather than the three-judge panel that issued last month’s ruling But the advocates for reforming Feres see the ruling as a critical milestone “The military is now the largest employer in the world and Feres has essentially been treated as a complete bar to suing for service members,” says Lindsey Knapp the executive director of Combat Sexual Assault which works to support military sexual assault survivors Hyten’s lawyers may also appeal to the Supreme Court although it’s unclear if the court would agree to hear it Even if the Supreme Court does accept the case the ruling casts the government’s position in an uncomfortable light An assault amphibious vehicle assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit enters the well deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Sean Galbreath “The military argued that sexual assault was essentially a part of your military service,” Knapp says Last year, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a Jane Doe who sued West Point and its leadership for creating an environment that permitted her sexual assault when she was a cadet The Second Circuit held that her claims were barred by Feres and the Supreme Court let that decision stand But Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent arguing it was time for the highest court to revisit Feres if two Pentagon employees—one civilian and one a servicemember—are hit by a bus in the Pentagon parking lot and sue it may be that only the civilian would have a chance to litigate his claim on the merits,” Thomas wrote Knapp is recruiting lawyers willing to bring similar cases in the Ninth Circuit and elsewhere to try to turn the legal tide But she and others believe that if Feres is to be overturned or rolled back the clearest recourse is not through the courts A Marine with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducts evacuation procedures out of a Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer during underwater egress training at the water survival training center at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune “The ultimate way to end the Feres doctrine is by an act of Congress,” Stirling says He sees the government’s argument that Spletstoser’s alleged assault was part of her service as an opportunity to shed light on how the doctrine has been used “The hope is that with more attention on Feres and the harm it does that Congress will kind of reconsider why we have this doctrine and the harm it does to our service members.” The recent court ruling doesn’t directly help the families of Marines who died at Camp Pendleton in 2020 Stirling had to break the news to Vienna and others But Vienna says any ruling that calls attention to the doctrine he sees as preventing him from pursuing justice for his son is important “There’s no accountability in the military because of this protection,” he says This War Horse feature was reported by Sonner Kehrt Editors Note: This <a target="_blank" href="https://thewarhorse.org/feres-doctrine-ruling-could-open-military-justice-lawsuits/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://thewarhorse.org">The War Horse,</a> an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service Subscribe to their <a target="_blank" href="https://thewarhorse.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=2dfda758f64e981facbb0a8dd&id=9a9d4becaa">newsletter</a> “Under our precedent, if two Pentagon employees — one civilian and one a servicemember — are hit by a bus in the Pentagon parking lot and sue, it may be that only the civilian would have a chance to litigate his claim on the merits,” Thomas wrote in his dissent Legal experts have debated for decades whether the original Feres decision was meant to cover only injuries incidental to combat and perhaps inherently dangerous military training or whether it should apply to any accident or assault endured while in uniform “Nothing in the text of the Act requires this disparate treatment,” Thomas wrote of the Federal Tort Claims Act which governs liability lawsuits against the federal government “Nor is there any background rule that federal bus drivers owe a greater duty of care toward workers who are civilian than those who are military.” The anonymous woman, identified as Jane Doe, was raped by a fellow cadet while walking on campus one evening, according to court documents and later dropped out of West Point altogether West Point failed to adhere to mandatory Department of Defense (“DOD”) regulations governing sexual violence response,” according to the petition to the court both Congress and DoD are considering removing prosecution authority for sexual harassment and assault out of the chain of command in an effort to ensure special victims experts have the lead in decision making A long history of malpractice in military medicine finally came to a head in 2019 when Congress incorporated parts of the SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act into the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act The bill was named for a Special Forces soldier with stage-four lung cancer that went undiagnosed for years despite a distinct mass on scans of his chest and so service members injured in other ways still have no legal recourse outside of a command’s decision to prosecute its own members So while service members are free to petition courts Those opposed to doing away with Feres argue that it’s a slippery slope wasting time and resources if commanders were forced to testify in every negligence case brought before a federal court more specific precedent by hearing Doe’s case we should take up this case to clarify the scope of the immunity we have created,” Thomas wrote “Without any statutory text to serve as a guide lower courts are understandably confused about what counts as an injury ‘incident’ to military service.” The court’s reluctance to hear these cases speaks volumes “Perhaps the Court is hesitant to take up this issue at all because it would require fiddling with a 70-year-old precedent that is demonstrably wrong,” he wrote “But if the Feres doctrine is so wrong that we cannot figure out how to rein it in then the better answer is to bid it farewell.” Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times leadership and other issues affecting service members for money damages … for injury or loss of property or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment under circumstances where the United States would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred was augmented by the Supreme Court in Feres v unwarranted judicial activism based on conjecture and speculation of what the legislature intended despite the clear meaning of what it actually enacted the Supreme Court disregarded the plain text of the FTCA by creating an exception which precludes Government liability “under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to servicemen where the injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service.” The Limited Exception To The Feres Doctrine Created By The NDAA and 849 dental residents and dental students received some or all of their clinical training in VA The inadequacies of the exception to the Feres Doctrine enacted as part of the NDAA arise from the attempt of the legislature to rework the pre-existing text of the FTCA by replacing the phrase “employee of the Government” (a phrase defined by 28 U.S.C.A § 2671) with “Department of Defense health care provider,” and imposing a geographical limitation by limiting recovery to those fortuitous enough to have suffered harms as the result of mistreatment “in a covered military medical treatment facility.”  To correct these inadequacies the legislature should: (a) remove the geographical limitation since any necessary geographic limitations are already set forth in 28 U.S.C.A § 2680(k) (stating that the FTCA does not apply to “[a]ny claim arising in a foreign country”); (b) replace the phrase “a Department of Defense health care provider” with “any employee of the Government;” and (c) amend the definition of the phrase “employee of the Government” to include personal services contractors students and fellows receiving their training on current and former members of the uniformed services at medical facilities maintained and operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs The Feres Doctrine: Still Alive and Well after Enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020? https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2020/03/daniel-perrone-feres-doctrine-ndaa/ Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in TN public schools January 2019; Army Master Sergeant Richard Stayskal on deployment in Iraq 2009.Courtesy the Del Barba Family; R: Courtesy the Stayskal FamilySave this storySaveSave this storySaveIn 2018 21-year-old Dez Del Barba had put his plan for the rest of his life in motion Dez had set his sights on becoming an officer in the United States Army he had been accepted into Officer Candidate School and was on his way to completing the necessary prerequisite of basic training Dez enlisted in the Army National Guard and obtained a leave from Sonoma State for a semester of his senior year he would finish his degree in business management while serving in the National Guard; then he would immediately transition to Army active duty and the path to becoming an officer He had graduated from Lincoln High School in his hometown of Stockton he continued his academic excellence and stayed fit as a gym rat at their home in Stockton in the winter of 2022 Mark had recently retired after 21 years as a corrections officer; I asked if he’d ever taken Dez to work to scare his son straight “There wasn’t ever any need,” Mark replied without hesitation Mark and Kamni had ample reason to believe their only son would thrive in the Army Kamni had served in the active-duty Army National Guard for 23 years Seated on the couch next to her husband in their living room Kamni talked about how her parents immigrated from India when she was a child and how grateful she is to this country “That was a big part of what inspired me to enlist,” she said Mark and Kamni accepted that one day Dez might be deployed to combat-risk zones “we never thought the Army would do to our son what they did to our son.” According to the Army’s own investigation of what later happened “[Private First Class] Del Barba was motivated and always willing to train We never had any issues from him,” one drill sergeant wrote in his sworn statement (Most names in the report are redacted.) “Was a hard worker,” another drill sergeant wrote He wrote that one of his fellow trainees died of a heart attack Kamni chalked it up to unavoidable tragedy The Del Barbas next heard from Dez on February 3 Mark thought his son’s voice sounded hoarse and asked him if everything was okay just there’s a lot of screaming and yelling Mark and Kamni got another call from Fort Benning; Dez was in the hospital a friend was driving them to the San Francisco airport and they were on the phone with a doctor at Piedmont Columbus Regional-Midtown hospital The doctor informed them Dez was going into emergency surgery He said that Dez had necrotizing fasciitis a flesh-eating bacterial infection that spreads rapidly The mortality rate for such an infection is around 25 percent Mark and Kamni began asking each other questions: “How does he get a flesh-eating disease?” Mark told me He emphasized certain words to convey their concern and confusion How does he get a flesh-eating disease?” As Mark and Kamni talked about their son they took turns without prompting; when one spoke I asked if there was a backstory behind the name Dez a stocky guy with a youthful face who wore an unbuttoned flannel over a T-shirt and blue Vans his favorite band was the punk group Black Flag One of the lead singers was Dez Cadena; Kamni agreed to let Mark go with the name THE HISTORY OF THE FERES DOCTRINE READS BOTH AS A QUIRK OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE AND ONE CONTINUALLY UNFOLDING INJUSTICE THAT TRACES ITS WAY BACK TO THE WANING DAYS OF WORLD WAR II he endured more than 40 skin-grafting procedures and two amputations on his left leg More than 50 percent of his skin was replaced His left leg from just above the knee was removed The kid who had been so full of purpose and so optimistic about his future attempted suicide trying hard to maintain their hope and sanity they began to piece together answers to their questions about how their son became sick Dez contracted a common case of strep throat base command and medical staff should have been especially vigilant against The Del Barbas later obtained his autopsy report; his fatal heart attack was due to cardiac arrhythmia Contributing factors included strep and influenza a couple of weeks before Dez began making almost daily trips to base medical services presenting symptoms consistent with a quickly intensifying case of strep Mark and Kamni learned that rather than appropriately examining Dez medical staff blew him off and sent him back to training: once examining him for less than three minutes According to a sworn statement in the Army’s report on Dez “Go the fuck away.” When Dez tested positive for strep a drill sergeant called him a “weak pussy” in front of his fellow trainees The Del Barbas say it was only after Dez was rushed to the ER that Fort Benning command took the steps to realize that indeed it had an epidemic of strep on base—hundreds of trainees were infected “They knew—they knew—Dez tested positive for strep,” Kamni told me “All they had to do was call him to come in and administer the shot All they had to do was give him the basic standard of care.” an Army spokesman told local news outlets the base had worked to combat the strep outbreak including spending $1.7 million on antibiotics “We take these unfortunate incidents very seriously and actively review our training regulations and procedures to prevent other serious incidents from occurring in the future,” the spokesperson said the Del Barbas reached out to attorneys to file a lawsuit “We wanted people held accountable,” Kamni told me Every lawyer they spoke with informed the Del Barbas that they had no legal standing to file a case against the military or against any of those in its employ because of something called the Feres doctrine the United States military have ever heard of the Feres doctrine or have any idea that current law denies active-duty service members the ability to sue their employer in civil court Most of those who are familiar with Feres have encountered it either because they are a service member who was a victim of an injury caused by military negligence or because they are family of a service member wrongfully killed in noncombat-related circumstances which takes its name from a 1950 Supreme Court ruling prevents service members from suing the federal government for any alleged wrongful injury or death that occurs “incident to service.” There is a lot packed into Feres especially that last phrase: incident to service according to a 2016 study coauthored by a doctor at Johns Hopkins University medical errors cause approximately 251,000 patient deaths which represent about 9.5 percent of all deaths in the United States That study is seminal and hotly debated because there has been almost no other scholarly research on the subject A 9.5 percent rate of fatality means medical malpractice is a leading cause of death in the US some 20,000 medical malpractice lawsuits are filed in the United States the annual average number of medical malpractice lawsuits that active-duty military personnel file against military health care providers is practically zero medical staff in the military make mistakes and there is negligence that sometimes causes harm or death categorized as “sentinel events.” According to the most recent data available from 2014 through 2018 there were a total of 657 sentinel events The publicly available data doesn’t make a distinction between injuries and deaths that would mean less than a tenth of 1 percent of active-duty military members are harmed or killed by medical treatment in military care Those statistics almost certainly underreport the actual number of sentinel events In 2018 the Government Accountability Office concluded the military’s tracking process for sentinel events was “fragmented and inconsistent” and as a result “impeded…complete information about sentinel events.” The history of the Feres doc-trine reads both as a quirk of American jurisprudence and one continually unfolding injustice that traces its way back to the waning days of World War II took off in a stripped-down B-25 bomber from Massachusetts bound for Newark Air traffic control directed Smith to delay his take-off time a West Point grad who had a reputation for being cocky Smith found himself in dense fog with close to zero visibility A guest reported seeing the bomber pass the 22nd floor of the Biltmore Hotel he crashed into the 79th floor of the 103-story Empire State Building The crash also killed 11 civilians who were among the few people working that Saturday morning and as the media reported more information about Smith’s recklessness Government officials working through Congress attempted to provide compensation to the civilian families to settle the matter but some families wanted to file lawsuits in federal court They ran up against the doctrine of sovereign immunity Sovereign immunity had been in place since the nation’s founding That principle held that the federal government is a sovereign power and therefore could not be sued Claims against the US federal government were then handled fielded and more or less adjudicated by Congress There are a couple of remarkable things about that arrangement One: The legislative branch assumed responsibilities of the judiciary And two: The founders allowed the notion that the king could do no wrong to take root in America public pressure compelled Congress to pass the Federal Tort Claims Act in which the federal government waived its immunity to lawsuits with 13 specific exceptions the act barred “any claim arising out of the combatant activities of the military or naval forces if you’re in the military and you get hurt or die in activities related to battle What the FTCA did not bar from a possible tort claim against the government were injuries due to negligence or wrongful death sustained in a military context unrelated to combat around the same time I visited the Del Barbas I joined Army Green Beret Richard Stayskal for what was outwardly a joyous moment who served with distinction as a Marine before enlisting in the Army was then nearing 20 years of decorated military service; he and his wife and their two teen girls were about to move into a newly constructed home During one of the days I was with Stayskal the builders were pouring the cement for the driveways and path to the front door and the contractor invited the family over to imprint their hands It was just a few days before Thanksgiving and unseasonably warm in the rural Sunlight flickered through tree leaves that fluttered in a breeze I asked Megan if she wanted me to take photos of the moment placing a hand in the cement at the edge of the driveway; then Megan; then each of their girls a sadness suddenly arrived like an uninvited guest Stayskal’s new house had been funded by the nonprofit Operation Finally Home which provides homes and home modifications for gravely ill and injured military veterans or their families Although the Stayskals would be together in their new home that holiday season the day was imminent when Megan and the girls would pass by those handprints and 40-year-old Sergeant First Class Stayskal would be forever gone from their lives Stayskal was dressed in a hooded sweatshirt with the logo of his Army Special Warfare Training Group He was all smiles and appeared every bit the fit warrior he had an unruly beard and exuded gung-ho energy and optimism Stayskal is not one of those people who cannot sit still; he can and he did so during the many hours we talked about what was done to him and as we talked about what he has done about it he told me this himself and asked if I minded jumping in his pickup with him while he ran errands I’ve got plenty of time to do that.” Stayskal’s resilience is no façade It’s part of what enabled him to survive the combat he faced in Iraq as a Marine and then return for more as an Army Green Beret Stayskal told me that when he was 19 years old he was “kind of lost.” A freshman in college he didn’t enjoy school and he was doing poorly and got the idea of enlisting while watching the movie U-571 The film is set during World War II; a crew of Americans takes over a German sub The scene that got Stayskal was one in which an American sailor sacrifices his life to save his crew “It wasn’t like I wanted to see people die especially people I know and am friends with,” he said “It was just so admirable that somebody was willing to give their life for others I wanted to be amongst those people that have that thought process The ongoing battle of Fallujah had flushed enemy insurgents out of the town Stayskal’s sniper team was on the outskirts Stayskal’s team radioed for backup but everyone was engaged; they’d have to hold out for now The insurgent sniper got Stayskal with a shot that entered his left side where the body armor wasn’t A corpsman rushed to him and lay by his side as the enemy ran their way Stayskal could see them coming; couldn’t have been more than 40 yards away Stayskal propped his rifle on the magazine and emptied it there was no way the corpsman could drag him out of there without getting killed too It was just a matter of minutes before the enemy would reach them The corpsman said he wasn’t going anywhere He took a minute and continued: He heard somebody yell “You just could hear it getting louder and louder.” The whoop-whooping of the blades of Marine choppers that laid down the fire that ended the firefight While he was transported from Iraq to the US military hospital in Germany But before the end of his four years in the Marines was over he honored his mother’s pleas and left at the end of his enlistment Stayskal was earning good money working with his father’s contracting company He returned to school and put up with the civilian world for as long as he could “I don’t know if I gave it a chance or I didn’t give it a chance,” he told me I’d be sitting there listening to people complain about things wouldn’t some of my buddies give anything to be able to complain instead of being dead I wanted to go back to what I knew and what I loved and where I felt like I fit in.” STAYSKAL RECALLS THE DOC LOOKING HIM IN THE EYE AND SAYING I AM A DOCTOR AND I DON’T LIKE THE WORD SUING BUT YOU SHOULD BE SUING THE CRAP OUT OF SOMEBODY FOR THIS.” Within six months they were married and Megan was pregnant Stayskal also had been trying to get back into the military He was still only 25 and a highly decorated combat vet with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star He says the Marines didn’t take him back because he left the Corps and the Navy rejected him because of his preexisting injury he went off to Fort Campbell in Kentucky and began his career as an Army infantryman with the 101st Airborne Division he was selected for Special Forces and earned his Green Beret He was deployed on special ops many times over Stayskal was assigned to the 1st Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Bragg and later selected to attend Special Forces Underwater Operations School which required him to complete a dive course a physician at the Womack Army Medical Center reviewed his scan and cleared him “Simplest of tasks were difficult.” For the first time in his military career He didn’t think it could be anything serious he’d been given a clean bill of health from Womack two months earlier Stayskal’s breathing challenges intensified breathing was a chore and he would have nightmares of drowning By May he felt so bad at work that he went to a base clinic A nurse recommended he be transported by ambulance to Womack where he had been scanned and cleared in January After X-rays “We reread your scans from January,” is how Stayksal recalls the conversation but I’m not a specialist.” The doctor informed Stayskal he would refer him to a pulmonologist the specks of blood that Stayskal had been occasionally coughing up were now more than that On May 22 he was at work at Fort Bragg and felt so bad his commanding officer cut some red tape and got Stayskal to a civilian hospital it wasn’t until June 20 that Stayskal got a CT scan there It showed a mass on the upper part of his right lung The prep and procedure gave him flashbacks to the hospitalization after he was shot ‘You’ll be all right.’ And then I woke up and I remember Megan was crying.” He had stage IIIA lung cancer and so what?” The “so what” was at 36 years old While he and Megan were in one of the first meetings with the civilian pulmonologist the doctor asked: “Why didn’t you come in sooner?” Stayskal was puzzled and responded that he came as soon as he could The civilian pulmonologist had obtained Stayskal’s CT scans of the previous January (five months earlier) from Womack; he informed Stayskal and Megan it clearly showed Stayskal had a tumor in his lung Stayskal recalls the doc looking him in the eye and saying I am a doctor and I don’t like the word suing but you should be suing the crap out of somebody for this.” The pulmonologist explained to Stayskal that if he had begun treatment for his tumor in January his chance of survival would have been 90 percent Now his prognosis was a few months to a couple of years a spokesperson for Womack Army Medical Center told The Fayetteville Observer they were “committed to providing the highest quality care in the military health system We continue to support SFC Stayskal in his ongoing medical treatment.” her husband appeared to be genuinely upbeat our heads are on the pillow and it’s just us I don’t want to leave you and the girls.’ ” Stayskal soon learned that the cancer had spread—to the left side of his neck Stayskal and Megan began contacting lawyers Stayskal says he was told that he had no legal standing to sue that Stayskal made up his mind that if he was going to die he was going to take out the Feres doctrine with him United States was one of three similar cases that had worked its way to the Supreme Court which consolidated them for consideration in 1950 The plaintiffs in each were either active-duty military members or the family of a decedent killed while on active duty The primary defendant in all three was the government The first suit was filed by the family of Army Lieutenant Rudolph Feres who died in a barracks fire caused by faulty heater wiring Feres’s widow alleged officers who put him in the barracks knew or should have known the heating plant was defective and that the barracks fire guard on duty the evening of the fire was also negligent a soldier underwent an abdominal operation and suffered post-op complications; in a follow-up procedure surgeons removed from the soldier’s stomach a towel 30 inches long by 18 inches wide; it was marked “Medical Department U.S was brought by the widow of Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Griggs who alleged her husband’s death during surgery had been caused by negligent Army physicians the Court ruled against all plaintiffs and dismissed the cases “FERES WAS WRONGLY DECIDED AND HEARTILY DESERVES THE ‘WIDESPREAD ALMOST UNIVERSAL CRITICISM’ IT HAS RECEIVED.” Jackson wrote: “The Government is not liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries to servicemen where the injuries arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service.” Essentially even noncombat injuries or malpractice suffered by military members could not form the basis for a lawsuit If Congress had wanted to allow such claims it would have made that more clear in the language of the act In the seven decades and rulings since that foundational Court opinion bipartisan swath of judges and legal minds who cite it as an example of staggering judicial overreach the ruling is a quintessential example of activist judges legislating from the bench divining Congress’s intent rather than abiding the statutory text as written In a dissenting opinion regarding a Feres doctrine case before the Supreme Court in 1987 “Feres was wrongly decided and heartily deserves the ‘widespread almost universal criticism’ it has received.” In that dissenting opinion Scalia joined with the three liberal judges on the Court: Justices William Brennan Scalia closed their dissent with an impassioned expression of anger over “congressional failure to act.” the Supreme Court has considered seven Feres doctrine cases all of them essentially rehashed the same core issues the Court added to or otherwise tweaked the previous precedents as the basis for dismissing the new claim before the Court it is that nearly every opinion on a Feres-related case has petitioned Congress to amend the torts claim law the task of qualifying and clarifying its language,” the Court wrote in its 1950 decision The Feres doctrine doesn’t only bar service members from filing medical malpractice claims against the Department of Defense Existing precedents make it virtually futile to file other actions too—such as those that might arise from harm and death resulting from alleged negligence Private First Class Vanessa Guillén was bludgeoned to death by Specialist Aaron Robinson on base at Fort Hood Texas; he then dismembered her corpse and buried the pieces along the banks of a nearby river Robinson died by suicide before he could be arrested Guillén told her family that she had been harassed by a supervisor (not Robinson) the Army’s own investigation found that officers at Fort Hood had created a “permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment at Fort Hood,” and disciplined 14 officers But despite the culture of dereliction of duty and willful negligence Feres makes achieving justice nearly impossible the Supreme Court declined to hear another suit brought by a former West Point cadet who claims she was raped on campus and that the Army failed to deal with the “pervasive and well-known culture of sexual violence” at the academy In a statement issued by the cadet’s legal team “No service member should ever be told that their rape is ‘incident to service.’ ” The most recent medical malpractice Feres-related case to reach the Supreme Court came in 2019 died in 2014 following a massive postpartum hemorrhage at the naval hospital in Bremerton A district court barred her family’s malpractice claim and the Ninth Circuit Court “regretfully” affirmed the Court officially declined to review the case Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion that quoted Scalia’s language from 1987 and bluntly chastised Congress for failing to clarify the FTCA language Thomas went further: “Such unfortunate repercussions—denial of relief to military personnel and distortions of other areas of law to compensate—will continue to ripple through our jurisprudence as long as the Court refuses to reconsider Feres.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not join in Thomas’s dissent; however Dez Del Barba was in a hospital undergoing one of his 40-plus skin grafting procedures and Richard Stayskal was assessing the battlefield to take aim at the Feres doctrine his way Stayskal had begun working with a Florida-based attorney “the Whistleblower Law Firm.” As Kitty told me Richard is a whistleblower.” Khawam doesn’t have a personality; she is a personality This doesn’t make sense; this case should be a slam dunk.” she had experience with cases against the likes of the Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Agency “I thought maybe Richard hasn’t been talking to the right people,” Khawam said Then she contacted a colleague who had a wealth of experience in malpractice cases “ ‘You only got one of two chances: an act of God or an act of Congress.’ ” “I felt so much sadness for his situation,” she told me “I let my heart lead in this case.” Stayskal and Khawam had followed the Daniel case but neither was optimistic given the 70 years of precedent to go on Khawam instead proposed they push for a bill in Congress “I had no idea what she was talking about,” Stayskal said while the Supreme Court considered ruling on the Daniel case walked into the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington to appear before the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel chaired by California representative Jackie Speier “Feres is the product of judicial activism and Congress’s silence,” Speier said in her opening remarks This hearing essentially was Khawam’s plan B Plan A had been to get the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider clarifying the language of the FTCA They hustled meetings with members of the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee The majority of Republicans on the committee were supportive but they all said the same thing: Nothing was going to happen without the backing of Lindsey Graham So Khawam walked Stayskal to the Democrat-controlled House Armed Services Committee “It was more important to get something through than it was to fight something you couldn’t fight,” Stayskal told me Khawam thought they still might be able to get a bill passed that would not directly address Feres but that would put into place a process that would allow active-duty service members to have a chance at something approximating justice What Khawam had in mind was modeled on the workers’ compensation process: a system of claims and reviews The point of Stayskal testifying was to educate the members—and generate media attention and public support He held it together pretty well until his close But my children are definitely the true victims The hardest thing I have to do is explain to my children when they ask me: ‘This doesn’t make sense How is this happening?’ And I have no good answers to give them To help convince these folks in Congress to change this.’ ” testified to the Department of Defense’s perspective on why Feres is “necessary.” From 1991 to 2006 Figley was the deputy director of the Department of Justice office that handled all tort litigation stating that the military already offered its members death gratuity benefits and compensation for service-connected deaths “If Congress overturns the Feres doctrine,” Figley said in his prepared remarks “injured service members could obtain their benefits from the military compensation system and then seek tort damages They or their attorneys would argue in our adversarial court that someone in the government was at fault for causing their injuries Having members of the military litigate about who was at fault for a training accident or surgical procedure would disrupt the relationship of mutual trust necessary to an effective fighting force.” a bipartisan bill cosponsored by Speier was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee The bill emerged with bipartisan cosponsors the SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019 became law The gist of the act looks like this: Each branch of the military assigns an attorney or attorneys to field claims from its members The alleged malpractice must have occurred in a Department of Defense medical center Claims must be filed within two years of the alleged malpractice claims filed in 2020 for events in 2017 are eligible Payments of up to $100,000 are made by the DOD; larger payments are made by the Treasury Department Any damages will be less the payments from other existing service member programs What Stayskal and Khawam accomplished is potentially seismic For the first time since the 1950 Feres decision has acknowledged that harm or death caused by military medical malpractice outside of combat situations is not “incident to service” and that victims do deserve to be compensated for their pain and suffering and loss According to information the DOD Office of General Counsel included in a presentation this past February the total number of Stayskal Act claims filed in the Air Force was 105; in the Navy Only two settlement offers had been accepted by claimants Both of those were Air Force: one for $20,000 and another for $10,000 non-economic (pain and suffering) compensation is capped at $600,000 The compensation cap is just one of the things that Stayskal doesn’t love about the act that bears his name He is proud of the work he did to get it passed but he will be the first to tell you this new process is not nearly the justice active-duty service members deserve will only happen when the Feres doctrine is abolished What troubles Stayskal and victims like him and their families most is that without the ability to sue there is no discovery process to compel the DOD or the government to produce documents or information; and without that there can be no accountability; and without accountability we talked on the back porch of his parents’ place in Pinehurst Megan waited for us to finish so we could go to dinner “My hope is somebody will pick up where I left off why do we forgo all of the rights that we fight for that you have asked me to instill in other countries Dez Del Barba has got one of those smiles—when he smiles When I arrived at his parents’ home last winter and Dez swung by after he got off work before heading to his apartment He’s 25 but could still pass for a Lincoln High School student He’s got his mother’s dark hair and dark eyes; the kind of face that his grandmother Dez walked through the front door and Kamni got up He wore an Army green T-shirt with the logo of his basic training company Kamni had sent me videos of him working out In the photos taken of Dez shortly after his diagnosis and throughout much of the eight months of the skin grafting and amputations you might have thought he crawled away from an IED explosion except for the black prosthetic from the knee down there’s not a visible sign of what he survived “Ten doesn’t come close to doing it justice Unless they are taking out the staples.” The flesh-eating infection had ravaged Dez from the waist down The skin doctors used to replace that skin was taken from “donor sites” on his chest and back “So I was in the uncomfortable position with skin taken off of my upper body,” Dez explained “and then laying down on this thing like a net The flesh that the net stuck to was my back So I would get up and it would rip off more skin and blood—that was the most painful out of everything.” Imagine that feeling you get when you experience a paper cut That’s how a doctor explained to Kamni what Dez experienced It took well over a year for Dez to physically heal enough to begin to restart his life He had his own apartment not too far from his family During the first eight months he spent in the hospital—with the procedures watching the toll it was taking on his parents “I kind of thought every night before I went to bed tomorrow I’ll wake up and I’ll be back in college and I will have my normal life again And it never came.” As soon as he got out of the hospital he got some fentanyl and with it attempted to end his life he answered the nightly FaceTime call from Julia and she immediately called 911 “I saw kids there that were there because they didn’t want to be in the Army anymore Maybe the drill instructor was yelling at them too much or the barracks buddies were too mean to them I just picked myself up and I stopped worrying about what my old life was I started thinking about what my life can be My body looks totally different than what it was before My mental toughness is totally different than it was before Dez would hear his parents talk about Feres beside his hospital bed but then he was focused on getting through the day three years after Stayskal testified before the House Committee on Armed Services Dez Del Barba walked into a hearing room and did the same still want accountability for what happened—not just to Dez but to countless other active-duty US military personnel Here’s part of what Dez read from his statement: three years and 19 days have passed since I contracted necrotizing fasciitis at Fort Benning...and I still have no clear answers on the status of any quality assurance investigation that may or may not have been initiated promptly What happened to me did not have to happen would you sit stagnant waiting for answers and you would never stop until the questions are answered and the responsible people are held accountable.” How Miriam Adelson Went From Big MAGA Winner to Casino Loser in Trump’s First 100 Days Trump’s Lies Are Finally Catching Up to Him The UK Has Found Another Reason to Be Mad at Meghan Markle “It’s About Him”: How Trump Is Perverting the Presidential Photo Stream The Ballad of Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson The Truth Underlying Pete Hegseth’s Job Security Why Are Americans So Obsessed With Protein How Sebastian Stan Became Hollywood’s Most Daring Shape-Shifter Every Quentin Tarantino Movie Meet Elon Musk’s 14 Children and Their Mothers (Whom We Know of) From the Archive: Sinatra and the Mob On the nine-hour drive from their home in California’s central valley to the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton After training as a corpsman — a medic — he’d embarked on a career path serving alongside Marine rifle teams A Marine holds the portrait of Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class (Fleet Marine Force) Christopher Gnem during a memorial service at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton The service was held in remembrance of the eight Marines and one sailor who died in an assault amphibious vehicle mishap off the coast of San Clemente Island Jennessa Davey/Marine Corps)They had been training near San Clemente Island Over the years, courts have upheld and expanded the Feres doctrine, even as service members and advocates say it prevents the military from having to take responsibility and make changes that could keep troops safer. But last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the government’s Feres defense in a civil lawsuit that alleged sexual assault “It’s the first time in a long time where the courts have taken a hard look at Feres and rolled it back and said that it needs to be limited in its scope,” Dwight Stirling In 1946, the Federal Tort Claims Act opened the door to lawsuits against the government in cases of negligence or wrongdoing “There’s a risk of undermining command and control or discipline in the military if you allow folks to sue their commanders for bad decision-making,” says Rachel VanLandingham, a law professor at Southwestern Law School and the president of the National Institute of Military Justice “They created this exemption that any activity or negligence or cause of action that arises … in the conduct of military activities or ‘incident to service’ will be barred,” VanLandingham says Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision An assault amphibious vehicle assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit enters the well deck of the amphibious assault ship Wasp on Jan (MCS3 Sean Galbreath/Navy)“The military argued that sexual assault was essentially a part of your military service,” Knapp says Last year, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a Jane Doe who sued West Point and its leadership for creating an environment that permitted her sexual assault when she was a cadet if two Pentagon employees — one civilian and one a servicemember — are hit by a bus in the Pentagon parking lot and sue A Marine with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducts evacuation procedures out of a Modular Amphibious Egress Trainer during underwater egress training at the water survival training center aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Brown/Marine Corps)“The ultimate way to end the Feres doctrine is by an act of Congress,” Stirling says Sonner Kehrt is an investigative reporter at The War Horse where she covers the military and climate change Her work has been featured in The New York Times Coach of Miramar Misiones heard abusing referee Javier Feres in video of incident that spread quickly A row at a Monday afternoon football match in Uruguay has ignited a national debate on prejudice and discrimination in a country which has previously resisted a reckoning on race and racism. Read moreThe incident began when a player for Miramar Misiones was sent off in the final minutes of the team’s 20 May match against Liverpool Fútbol Club confronted referee Javier Feres and was clearly heard to call him “negro de mierda” (Black piece of shit) Video of the incident spread quickly on social media; Lombardi was sanctioned by the Uruguayan Football Association and resigned from the team but still faces an investigation by public prosecutors for incitement to hatred The unusually swift and high-profile consequences for Lombardi’s abuse have been seen as a potential turning point in Uruguay a majority white-country where discussion of racism normally runs up against “colourblind” discourse – and where analysis of social inequality routinely ignores ethnic factors who has kept a low profile since the incident confessed to feeling uncomfortable at finding himself at the centre of a national debate but said he had felt obliged to register a complaint over Lombardi’s insult to set a precedent “Generally we referees are harassed a lot but I had never experienced something like this What I see as positive is how society and the public prosecutor’s office reacted,” he told the Guardian Ricardo Caruso Lombardi was heard using a racist slur against the match’s referee Photograph: Alejandro Pagni/AFP/Getty ImagesActivists have also welcomed the response although they noted that Lombardi was already controversial among Miramar fans because of the team’s poor results – and they warn that the incident represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to discrimination in Uruguay “The immediate prosecutorial investigation into a flagrant act of racism at a football match sets an important precedent,” said Susana Andrade former legislator and co-founder of the Afro-Uruguayan organisation Atabaque “But experience obliges us to celebrate every achievement with great caution you take three steps forward and a hundred steps back because racist violence has many supporters and sentinels.” expressed hope that the case could prompt broader changes in Uruguayan football a consultant and activist: “Progress has been made in symbolic The hard core of racism persists: deep inequality and barriers in access to opportunities which are disproportionately concentrated in the white Uruguayan population.” whose official narrative has made Black people and Indigenous people invisible to create a homogeneously white and European imaginary Uruguay has a vibrant Afro-descendant community which makes up 10% of its population and created one of the main hallmarks of national culture: candombe Javier Feres gestures during a match between Montevideo City Torque and Nacional at a match on 27 August 2022 in Montevideo Photograph: Agencia Gamba/Getty ImagesBut Black Uruguayans experience the worst social indicators in the country and one of the most pronounced income inequalities in the region “Afro-Uruguayan identity is widely recognized and people are still ignorant about the reality of life for the Black population,” said Rivero Uruguay has the lowest poverty rate in Latin American according to a 2020 report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the United Nations Population Fund the percentage of Afro-descendants living in poverty is around three times that of non-Afro-descendants,” it found This highlights the fact that ethnic-racial inequalities can persist – and even worsen – even in contexts of low poverty or a marked reduction of this phenomenon.” What set apart the Miramar Misiones incident was the fact that it was widely discussed – and criticised there are countless episodes of racism that go unnoticed because the police and judiciary are ineffective and so these human rights violations become sadly endemic,” said Andrade “People who experience [racist] aggression do not report it because ‘nothing ever happens’ It has a double negative effect: the problem becomes invisible and impunity continues.” public bodies must by law allocate 8% of their jobs to people of African descent there is still no understanding of how racism operates and the impact it has on the Afro-Uruguayan population,” said Rivero it is difficult to design policies that address its consequences.” 2022L: The last family photo of all four of the Vega family April 2018; Folded flag presentation at Patrick's funeral "On behalf of a grateful nation please accept this flag as a symbol of appreciation for your son's faithful service."Both: Courtesy of the Vega Family.Save this storySaveSave this storySave“My son Patrick Vega just 10 days into Marine Corps Boot Camp.” So began a note I received from Manny Vega “As a former Marine and retired police investigator the story the Marine Corps first told my family and I about the circumstances leading to Patrick’s death just didn’t make sense.” Manny had contacted me through LinkedIn and he explained that he was writing to me because he read a story I reported almost 20 years ago about preventable deaths and injustice within the military “As you mentioned in your story,” Manny’s note continued “the Feres doctrine is a major obstacle in obtaining accountability For over 70 years it has had an unintentional effect on military leadership and decision making Lack of true accountability has led to countless deaths within our military.” What Manny had written was correct: In the story I reported almost two decades ago the Feres doctrine was mentioned And Supreme Court justices and legal experts on both the right and the left would agree that Manny was also correct in his assessment that the Feres doctrine has impeded accountability when it comes to the military the Feres doctrine bars active-duty service members from suing the federal government for wrongful injury or death that occurs outside of combat including tort claims regarding alleged medical malpractice the Court’s interpretation of law has precluded such civil claims because such tragedies and crimes occur “incident to service.” Gold Star family meeting with Representative Jackie Speier in June 2022.Courtesy of the Vega Family.The case of Patrick Vega is an excellent example of why any pursuit of justice without the ability to file a civil claim against the government—and thus without the process of discovery—is an ongoing miscarriage of justice that indeed inhibits accountability Manny and Amy’s only son left home to begin 13 weeks of Marine Corps boot camp the Vega family got a call informing them Patrick was in the hospital They arrived to find Patrick with no brain activity Patrick had been a competitive swimmer since he was six years old qualifying for the Junior Olympics when he was 13 He played on his high school water polo team he failed to make the required time for the one and half mile run and was moved to the Physical Conditioning Platoon medicine to treat an upper respiratory infection and throat lozenges His condition only worsened and dramatically He was vomiting—a lot—at least eight times within about three days According to the Marine Corps own investigation one of his fellow trainees expressed concern to the command duty officer; hours before Patrick would die the command duty officer said they would not be calling emergency medical services because a recruit is vomiting the command duty officer ordered the barracks night watch to check on him throughout the evening Patrick’s barracks buddies found him unresponsive in his bed; they could not find a pulse He was rushed to the Naval Medical Center San Diego Naval Criminal Investigative Services Miramar issued a half page memo which officially stated Patrick “had a history of sepsis with four incidents resulting in admittance to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).” The NCIS memo also “characterized Vega’s death as a result of natural causes and medically expected resulting from an auto-immune condition.” The memo stated that “AFMES (Armed Forces Medical Examiner System) was not conducting an autopsy because (name redacted) diagnosis of cause and manner of death.” “Patrick never had a history of sepsis or an autoimmune condition,” Manny told me “That letter is bullshit.” Over the many hours that we talked Manny spoke about his years as a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department and then as an investigator with the Oxnard Police Department by way of making his point that you don’t need to be a detective to know that memo is “garbage.” As far as Manny is concerned it was a false narrative; Patrick’s death should have received a real What he alleges played out in that Physical Conditioning Platoon raises questions that thus far Michael and Sienna Hicks) meeting with Senator Ted Cruz in June 2022.Courtesy of the Vega Family.Heartsick and outraged the Vega family began contacting elected representatives wrote letters—they were relentless and finally NCIS opened an investigation into Patrick’s death other witnesses refused to provide a statement memories almost certainly had blurred and key details lost “The Department of Defense handed me a flag at Patrick’s funeral but it means nothing coming from them,” Manny said “We want to get rid of Feres and hold these people and entities responsible We want to know what really happened.” That would require the government to produce documents and information the Vega family have dedicated themselves to attempting to compel Congress to address the legislation behind the Feres doctrine Manny has been tireless in his outreach to elected officials taking meetings with any who will give him time Attorney Daniel Maharaj represents the Vega family he provided an overview of Patrick’s death to US congresswoman Julia Brownley Maharaj wrote that according to his analysis the reports the military have done on Patrick’s death are “riddled with serious inconsistencies and blatantly false information about what happened to Patrick leading up to his death and relating to what ultimately caused his death.” The Vega family created a nonprofit organization, Save Our Servicemembers (SOS) which has become both a resource of support and an advocacy group for service members who have been severely injured in noncombat-related circumstances; and for families like the Vegas mothers and fathers have died or been killed outside of anything related to what any reasonable American would consider risks that come with military service a soft-spoken 22-year-old pursuing a master’s degree in education Kate was a high school senior when she stood with her parents at Patrick’s bedside as her brother died “We realized we weren’t the only family in this situation,” Manny says “And when Kate began researching for the website we started to see just how many were out there.” On the SOS website there are sections for “Fallen Servicemembers,” which breaks down into subsections of “Active-Duty Injuries,” “Active-Duty Deaths,” and “Recruit Deaths 2000–2022.” Scroll through the pages and you see photo after photo of the faces of men and women—many of them between 18 and their early 20s—and the summaries of how they were injured or killed in what are alleged to be negligent and troubling circumstances that have nothing to do with combat activities “Here you have a young lady dealing with the death of her brother but also mourning all of the kids on that website hundreds of them.” Manny also regards the site as a memorial for those who have died and as an updated source of information for journalists and for SOS itself—an archive of information to present to elected officials which has 11 “founding families” and a steering committee holds fundraisers which support efforts like the trip Manny and some of the families took to Washington It was on that trip that SOS fortified a relationship with the Tragedy Assistance Program (TAPS) a nonprofit organization that advocates for families grappling with the death of a service member loved one TAPS was among the alliance that worked for the recent passage of the PACT Act TAPS provided SOS members with a crash course on how to meet and communicate with their elected officials to discuss the Feres doctrine SOS also garnered additional support from the American Legion the nation’s largest veterans service organization The American Legion recently voted to advocate for legislative changes SOS has proposed related to the Feres doctrine “People have told me you can’t take on the government or the military “People tell me we’re not going to change the Feres doctrine By Debra Cassens Weiss Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued Monday that the high court should have agreed to hear an appeal by a West Point cadet to repeal a doctrine that has protected the military from tort lawsuits by service members outside combat In a dissent from cert denial Thomas said the doctrine established in 1950 by Feres v United States was a policy judgment by the Supreme Court that is not based on the wording of the Federal Tort Claims Act The law has a narrow carve-out that only protects the government from suits “arising out of … combatant activities … during time of war.” Feres goes further by protecting the United States from suits incident to military service The “Jane Doe” petitioner was a student at the U.S Military Academy at West Point who said she was raped by a fellow cadet Her suit alleged that West Point’s sexual assault policies were inadequate A federal appeals court held that Doe’s claims were barred by sovereign immunity “Feres was wrongly decided; and this case was wrongly decided as a result,” Thomas said “if two Pentagon employees—one civilian and one a service member—are hit by a bus in the Pentagon parking lot and sue it may be that only the civilian would have a chance to litigate his claim on the merits.” Thomas said lower courts are “understandably confused” about what counts as an injury incident to military service 1st Class Richard Stayskal had only a few minutes on Wednesday night to get his point across “I just told him I was a Green Beret from North Carolina, that I had lung cancer and that there was a bill that recently passed through the House,” Stayskal A friend had arranged a quick meeting with President Trump before he went on stage at a rally in Greenville and it was his moment to take his fight from Capitol Hill to the White House President Donald Trump met backstage July 17 1st Class Richard Skayskal at a campaign rally in Greenville (Carolyn Kaster/AP)It’s called the Sergeant First Class Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019 he’s definitely going to take a look into it,” Vice President Mike Pence told Stayskal later the House passed its version of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act Now it needs the Senate’s vote and the president’s signature to become a law Stayskal was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in June 2017 He had been having trouble breathing for months but a January scan at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg that initial chest scan did show a tumor in Stayskal’s lung The Womack doctors hadn’t caught it on his first CT scan but when he showed up in the emergency room unable to breathe in May another doctor picked up the old scan and noticed a mass Records show a recommendation for a biopsy By the time a civilian doctor diagnosed him the tumor had doubled in size and spread to other organs But Stayskal and his family cannot sue those Womack doctors for missing the tumor or failing to tell him about it because a 1950 Supreme Court decision that created the Feres Doctrine prohibits service members for seeking compensation for illness or injury they suffer as a result of negligence on the part of the military split-second judgment calls by medics and surgeons in combat but it covers all scenarios in the Defense Department’s in-house medical system and others who have suffered medical malpractice at the hands of a military doctor "Feres represents the worst of judicial legislating and it’s long past time that Congress fix this injustice,” she said in a release after the House voted to include the bill in the latest NDAA draft “Our service members deserve the right to sue the government when negligent medical care results in their injuries or deaths This victory is due in large part to the commitment who responded to the botched diagnosis as a true hero by continuing to serve with his fellow soldiers and fighting for legislation to ease this unimaginable burden for his wife and two young daughters as well as all those who come after him.” It would allow troops to file claims against DoD for “negligent or wrongful act or omission in the performance of medical or related health care functions (including clinical studies and investigations)” performed at military treatment center Now the bipartisan bill is on to the Republican-led Senate where it will need support on both sides to become law Getting the president’s attention would help motivate the rest of his party to get on board and remembered that I would be there and would be running across him,” Stayskal said will be back on the hill next week to meet with senators thousands of active duty soldiers will continue to suffer from malpractice and negligence ― which our country can not afford,” she told Military Times “We need to protect our troops and provide them with proper medical care so that they can stay healthy and continue to fight for our country.” but showing them that this should be done because it’s the right thing to do.” chairman of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel Opponents of overturning Feres say it’ll open DoD up to a never-ending stream of bankrupting lawsuits and that medical disability benefits are sufficient to compensate service members for illness or injury they suffer because of the job But Stayskal is confident that lawmakers are weighing the issue “I definitely get the impression that they’re taking it in and they’re listening I’d be questionable about anybody who just blurted out something without really putting any thought into it.” Set on fire by a colleague, this Army nurse is taking her story to Capitol HillCapt. Katie Blanchard is hoping to give a voice to service members harmed by negligence.By Pushing ahead he’s stabilized with the help of chemotherapy pills and other medications "They haven’t really wanted to say anything ‘Try not to worry about it until you have to.' It’s going to come back the question lingers as to how he got lung cancer in the first place ‘What are you doing with lung cancer?’ " he said It’s not too hard to guess where you got it from,' " Stayskal said Though no studies have found a definitive link its widely suspected that exposure to burn pits ― used for waste disposal downrange ― can cause serious health issues They have been common on the small outposts used by special operations units In a report published April, DoD acknowledged the danger of breathing in the fumes and insisted that they are only used in situation where there is no suitable alternative his doctors telling him," ‘We’d love to say definitively that this is where it came from so let’s just worry about getting you healthy The deaths of two former teammates, 10th Special Forces Group’s Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsey and Command Sgt. Maj. Ryan Sartor this year have put things into perspective really hard,” he said of Lindsey’s March death in Afghanistan Sartor was still dealing with that when a similar attack took his life on July 13 because I know that’s not what he wanted,” he said We’re doing it because we believe deep down that we’re doing good we’re bettering something that’s in a terrible situation.” Sartor would have wanted them not to dwell on issues “He definitely taught us to make things better than they were when we found them no matter what the cost us,” Stayskal said "And that’s just kind of what we’re doing today We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. 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Become one A judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenged a decades-old ruling allowing a colonel to take her sexual assault case to civil trial Republish this story Sexual assault survivors in the military have long been unable to pursue civil charges against the U.S but a ruling this month from a federal judge might signal a new way forward.  the Central District Court of California in October 2020 denied the motion to dismiss because the “alleged sexual assault could not have conceivably serve any military purpose.” Hyten and the government then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit where their motion to dismiss Spletsoser’s complaint was denied again earlier this month In her opinion Rawlinson said: “We cannot fathom how the alleged sexual assault in this case could ever be considered an activity ‘incident to military service.’” Now unless the case is appealed to the Supreme Court Spletstoser can pursue a civil trial.   Legal experts agree that the 9th Circuit’s “strong language” on this issue is significant because the case is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to review a petition challenging the Feres doctrine in 2019. The 19th reached out to several experts and victim advocates most of whom submitted written information and expertise to the court  in the Spletstoser case to weigh in on what this opinion means for military sexual assault survivors.  Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected] lawyer and the executive director of Combat Sexual Assault a nonprofit dedicated to helping military sexual assault survivors “We’re really excited about this and [survivors] should expect some larger broader strategy coming out soon to help them specifically,” Knapp said.  who regularly takes up cases involving sexual assault in the military said she’s always trying to find attorneys who can assist or do the same kind of work because for many Her organization’s new strategy following the court’s ruling is to recruit and create a broader pool of attorneys who will be paired with clients and placed in appropriate firms across the country If similar cases are appealed to other circuit courts around the country the Supreme Court is even more likely to take notice Knapp said she hopes more survivors will have the legal support they need to hold perpetrators and those in power accountable.  “We don’t have a clear path to victory yet but certainly the process has begun,” Knapp said Spletstoser crawled so we could run.”  a retired Navy captain and director of government operations and relations at Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) said she’s less optimistic about whether the ruling will become the law of the land it caught the attention of many who have been working on this issue for years and could have broader ripple effects “Sexual assault survivors and their attorneys are watching closely,” Manning said “If people can sue with an exception to the Feres doctrine because it’s off-duty not incident to service — this can have wider implications And the courts and the Congress will be watching that as well.”  a retired Air Force colonel who served as the former chief prosecutor for the U.S said that the court opinion is “potentially massively significant.” unbelievably — that rape and sexual assault are incident to service,” said Christensen an advocacy group dedicated to ending sexual violence in the military “At least the 9th Circuit put out some pretty strong language that there’s no way that a rape or sexual assault can serve a military purpose There’s nothing unique about rape and sexual assault that requires military expertise to abjudicate.” an Army veteran and chief executive of SWAN not a good representation of the image that the military tries to push through when it comes to being noble and integrity-driven — when you have a colonel suing the government for the actions of a general during military service,” Barber said I’m not saying she’s obviously going to get the justice that she deserves this is putting pressure on the military to make changes.”  The military justice system is separate from that of civilians Criminal offenses are handled and investigated internally by the military and service members’ ability to seek civil trials has long been limited.  government operated with “sovereign immunity” and could not be sued Congress enacted the Federal Tort Claims Act to allow for federal employees to recover damages when their injury is the result of the government’s negligence or irresponsibility the legislation includes a two-year statute of limitations for those seeking recourse and came with a major exception: service members could not sue over any injuries incurred in battle during wartime The idea was that civilian courts in these cases would undermine military discipline.  known as the Feres doctrine and established after the war’s end limited service members’ rights further by barring service members from suing the government over any injuries incurred while on active duty a decorated World War II veteran who parachuted into France on D-Day died in a barracks fire after returning to the United States arguing that the government was negligent by housing her husband with a defective heating system and failing to maintain a fire watch The Court ruled that the government was not liable for Feres’s death.   The Supreme Court has continued to debate the use of the Feres doctrine over the years and several justices have voiced their disapproval of a doctrine that allows citizens a recourse not afforded to members of the military.  “Feres was wrongly decided and heartily deserves the widespread, almost universal criticism it has received,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 1987.  the doctrine remains largely intact.  Spletstoser attended a two-day defense forum in Simi Valley California.  The evening after the forum concluded who was one year into her tenure as a leader within the highest echelons of military command was getting ready for bed when she heard an unexpected knock on her hotel door a general and her superior who also attended the forum He was staying in the room across the hall kissed and rubbed his body on Spletstoser against her will — all while declaring he wanted to “make love,” she alleged In a 2019 interview with The New York Times hug and touch her inappropriately while in the office or on trips multiple times in 2017 She had even threatened to tell his wife but said she had no intentions of coming forward because she thought Hyten would soon retire But when Hyten was nominated by former President Donald Trump to the second-highest ranking military job in the country Spletstoser said she had a “moral responsibility” to speak out.  Hyten denied the allegations in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2019 at his confirmation hearing to be the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “I want to state to you and to the American people in the strongest possible terms that these allegations are false He retired from the military in November 2021, and became an executive and adviser for Blue Origin The court opinion is a “great first step,” but Christensen cautioned that more still needs to happen: The case has yet to be adopted in other circuit courts or appealed to the Supreme Court.  the ruling only applies to assaults that occurred within the 9th Circuit’s jurisdiction the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.  Legal experts said it was most likely that the case will be appealed to the Supreme Court — which might take years to play out a retired Air Force colonel and SWAN’s incoming director of government operations and relations she is not sure the Court will side with the 9th Circuit “It is traditional that the Court defer to the military,” Fenner said with the current constitution of this Supreme Court I can’t see them not siding with the military.”  Though the court process could take time, experts agreed Congress or the military itself might step in. In recent years, there have been other major changes to the military justice system particularly when it comes to sexual assault.  Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at [email protected] Learn more about membership The 19th is a reader-supported nonprofit news organization. Our stories are free to republish with these guidelines Discover our collection of visually stunning infographics and data-driven insights to guide your decisions Get access to everything you need to make sense of Ethiopia's Innovative Economy Explore all the data and resources you need on digital financial services in Ethiopia Determine the correct VAT rate for your goods and services Get an instant estimate of your income tax Easily convert dates between the Ethiopian and Gregorian calendars a local journalist was on her way home after a long stay at the office she went on the Feres taxi-hailing app and requested a corporate ride for a trip from the Stadium area to her home in the city’s outskirts around the Bole Arabsa neighborhood A driver accepted the trip and informed her that he was on his way to pick her up she assumed nothing out of the ordinary as she hopped into the vehicle that matched the credentials on the app she realized that the trip was anything but ordinary as the driver began making sexual advances at her \"It was incredibly frustrating,\" she recalled to Shega he began hurling insults and insisted they should spend the night together In fear of further instigating the driver while in the vehicle she avoided directly reporting the harassment to Feres she messaged colleagues who contacted the Company on her behalf she was forced to endure the driver’s harassment for the entire 40-minute trip as the Company failed to provide assistance immediately “They contacted me as I was about to exit the vehicle,” she says Many women in Addis Ababa have faced similar incidents of sexual harassment while using ride-hailing services The lack of comprehensive data on incidents and unclear policies addressing sexual harassment within the ride-hailing industry has become a serious problem Seemingly lenient and grossly inadequate responses from the taxi Companies have exacerbated the problem The journalist who insisted on anonymity reached out to Feres in the morning after her harrowing experience they attempted to understand the status of their report and how they could follow through While the lack of response from the Company frustrated her what happened just a week later sparked confusion and shock She would find herself matched with the same driver she had spent the entire week reporting to the Company An incident that begged the question of whether her reports had any effect at all \"I was so disturbed by my experience that I saved his information and blocked him after the incident,\" she said The least they could do is avoid pairing me with him,” she questioned It's worth noting that she was a corporate customer a category typically associated with enhanced security measures as a significant amount of information is shared about drivers and passengers this incident illustrates serious gaps around information management and reporting procedures that could expose all categories of female passengers to harassment says that when a sexual harassment report is filed the driver is immediately suspended for three weeks pending an investigation the case will be transferred to the Addis Ababa police,” he told Shega the Reporting system appears to have overlooked accusations at least in the Journalist's experience as it matched her with same driver in a week Yeshiwas also reflected that Feres maintains a zero-tolerance policy for misconduct while acknowledging that there was room for improvement He expressed an openness to suggestions and collaborations aimed at enhancing the safety of female passengers Still, the unwillingness to publicize the number of incidents or a detailed account of responses could give credence to transparency concerns around the industry. With close to 15 ride-hailing companies actively providing services in Addis Ababa to an increasing number of female passengers safety standards are of paramount importance Globally Sexual assault in ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft have become a major concern prompting regulatory bodies and ride-hailing companies to implement various policies aimed at preventing such incidents Both Uber and Lyft have reported thousands of sexual assault incidents in recent years. For instance, Lyft's safety report documented 4,158 alleged sexual assaults from 2017 to 2019. grapples with a disturbing trend of sexual harassment within ride-hailing services A survey by the Kenyan National Transport and Safety Authority revealed that nearly 40% of female riders have endured harassment during their trips the surge in popularity of ride-hailing companies has kept in tandem with incidents of sexual harassment and gender-based violence sparking widespread outrage on social media A notable example includes a popular singer who publicly shared her experience of sexual harassment by a ride-hailing driver prompting many women to come forward with similar stories and even calling for a boycott of service providers like Feres In response to these alarming incidents and the lack of transparent action from ride-hailing companies a coalition of women's rights groups has recently issued demands for stricter measures to protect female passengers The joint call outlines five key demands: a Zero-Tolerance Policy the display of Safety Guidelines in vehicles and the establishment of a reliable reporting and complaint system “The pledge emerged in response to the growing number of harassment reports targeting female passengers particularly stories shared by women on social media and the glaring absence of any real policies to protect them.” Says Mekdelawit Getahun A survey conducted by the Group has also revealed a disturbing pattern of harassment faced by women using ride-hailing services Numerous women passengers have shared similar accounts of sexual harassment on social media detailing incidents ranging from unwanted advances to outright threats Little in the form of official statements and transparent protection has been signaled from the ride haling platforms One passenger shared “The ride driver gave my phone number to a traffic officer to avoid getting a ticket and I was harassed by the officer” another one recounted “When we arrived at a quite place he pulled up the car and said he wouldn’t drive me unless I kissed him” “One driver tried to flirt with me and the same night he sent me a pornographic video” reads a third account but one I will never forget is when I got threatened by a Feres driver for refusing to tip him Then he continued to contact me with a different number and threatened me continuously and they couldn’t do anything except tell me to be careful.” Shared another Passenger the coalition is not merely making requests; they are issuing a demand for systemic change  “Our statement reflects a collective frustration with an industry that has repeatedly failed to protect its most vulnerable passengers,” she told Shega The coalition believes that a properly implemented zero-tolerance policy could improve female passengers' safety by setting clear consequences for misconduct Immediate suspension and investigation of drivers after complaints with permanent removal if allegations are confirmed While a majority of ride-hailing companies have opted to ignore calls from the women’s rights groups an emerging ride hailing platform has echoed the call for zero-tolerance towards misconduct and was the only company to issue a statement responding to the rights groups “In response to recent calls from joint feminist advocacy groups for safer ride-hailing services in Ethiopia Yango is doubling down on its commitment to passenger safety by introducing new and enhanced safety features for both riders and drivers.” “ Yango enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy for any form of sexual harassment or violence.” reads the company statement The Company’s current safety policy includes the automatic blocking of a driver who has a complaint lodged against him alongside a concurrent investigation This approach aims to ensure that both the driver’s and passenger's accounts are considered before any decisions are made The Russian-rooted company has also recently introduced an SOS button within its app which lined up with the Coalition’s demand This feature allows passengers to quickly alert local authorities in emergencies and is available around the clock Yango has implemented a comprehensive online training program for drivers and boasts a reporting system that claims 99.99% of its trips occur without incident.” Says Yekenealem Abebe (PhD) Yango Country Director Yango is a relatively new entrant to Ethiopia's taxi hailing industry and operates a comparably smaller market share than that of the two dominant service providers (Feres industry standards and clear policies about what sexual harassment entails within the ride hailing service sector remains a lingering concern The coalition of feminist organizations defines any form of unwanted contact be it verbal or physical as an infringement on passenger rights This includes inappropriate comments or gestures that can undermine a passenger's sense of safety and dignity in collaboration with the Colonel John Robinson Center convened a panel discussion to address the growing concern of sexual harassment within the ride-hailing industry representing various women's rights advocacy organizations discussed the pervasive issue of rape culture and its normalization within these platforms A central question emerged: How can women navigate the risks associated with ride-hailing services screenshots and trip details with friends has become a common practice Anecdotal evidence suggests that women are employing various strategies to mitigate risks though unstainable often relying on community support and self-protective measures Panelists proposed a solution: the establishment of an independent reporting system to document cases of sexual assault and track driver histories This system would serve as a valuable resource for women as ride-hailing platforms have been reluctant to take responsibility for recording such incidents Drawing inspiration from international practices the coalition suggested that Ethiopia could adopt similar strategies to enhance passenger safety India's successful integration of an SOS feature in ride-hailing apps empowers passengers to directly alert authorities during emergencies rigorous background checks on drivers and anonymous reporting systems have contributed to a safer ride-hailing environment focused on respectful conduct and anti-harassment policies could be effectively adapted to the Ethiopian context Several attempts by Shega to get a comment from Ride during the development of this story were unsuccessful How Ethiopia’s Taxi Hailing Industry Falls Short Protecting Female PassengersReports of female passengers experiencing harassment while using taxi hailing services is becoming all too common in Addis Ababa Women rights groups are jointly calling for a zero-tolerance policy.December 10 2024Bookmark Etenat Awol "It was incredibly frustrating," she recalled to Shega "I was so disturbed by my experience that I saved his information and blocked him after the incident," she said Still, the unwillingness to publicize the number of incidents or a detailed account of responses could give credence to transparency concerns around the industry. With close to 15 ride-hailing companies actively providing services in Addis Ababa to an increasing number of female passengers Both Uber and Lyft have reported thousands of sexual assault incidents in recent years. For instance, Lyft's safety report documented 4,158 alleged sexual assaults from 2017 to 2019. The joint call outlines five key demands: a Zero-Tolerance Policy A survey conducted by the Group has also revealed a disturbing pattern of harassment faced by women using ride-hailing services Etenat Awol Etenat holds a degree in Journalism and her master's in Public Relations. Previously, she served as a university lecturer and has five years of experience in communications, media, digital marketing, and consulting. Post a commentYour Email Address Will Not Be Published Ethiopian Software Company Bets On Rent-to-Use SaaS Model with Monthly Subscriptions Starting at 5,000 ETB Currency Devaluation, Customer Rage, Layoffs: is DSTV Having a Rough Ride in Ethiopia? 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If Rebekah Daniel had been a civilian spouse at the same hospital "We understand the court's hesitancy to deal with military discipline issues This was about medical judgments," Hoyal said Feres dates to a series of cases in the late 1940s that involved injuries to troops serving on active duty Rudolph Feres sued the government after her husband died in a barracks fire caused by a defective heating system the 1950 Supreme Court said the DoD already has disability compensation in place for personnel and dependents and to allow troops to sue the federal government would in effect cause civilian courts to question military orders and discipline adding that the Federal Tort Claims Act shouldn't apply in those cases The last Feres case petitioned to the high court also involved childbirth and an active-duty woman: In 2009, the daughter of an Air Force captain was injured when her mother received a medication that caused a severe allergic reaction while she was in labor The court never heard the case; the Justice Department settled it in 2016 In opinions written before they became U.S Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas expressed interest in reviewing Feres Hoyal said he does not know which of the current justices requested the response from the federal government in the Daniel case the solicitor general requested an extension Walter Daniel's attorneys have several weeks to review and file another response The justices will decide in conference whether to hear the case The DoD argues that Feres is necessary because it could cause military doctors and providers to be more cautious in their approach to treating personnel which could affect their ability to save lives both in military hospitals and on the battlefield Pentagon officials also say the department offers a robust compensation package to those who are injured in the line of duty More than 7,000 petitions are filed each year to the Supreme Court with the justices accepting 75 to 80 cases Hoyal said the request for a response means the odds of the Daniel case being accepted have increased significantly but knows it's still a long shot he believes it's time for the justices to weigh in on military medical malpractice cases that resulted in grievous injury or death The Supreme Court request for a government response first was reported by the Military Officers Association of America -- Patricia Kime can be reached at patriciankime@gmail.com The parade didn't begin until Alan Kennett Hegseth argued that senior leaders should be "unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that.. 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Visit our Customer Support center for solutions or to contact us Victims of sexual assault in the military face a mountain range of obstacles before, and if ever, they find justice. Their judge could potentially be their rapist’s best friend. He chooses the jury and has the power to “change the charge, reduce the sentence, or even overturn the verdict.” And in some cases, such as that of Jessica Hinves, featured in The Invisible War her judge “didn’t have any legal education Add the Feres doctrine to the list of hurdles Supreme Court passed the doctrine in response to three cases of military members injured from causes unrelated to the battlefield — one man in a building fire from a malfunctioning heater they weren’t liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act which at that time prevented individuals from suing the military for injuries on the battlefield The military didn’t want to worry about getting sued for the very thing servicemembers had signed up for the court expanded the Tort Claims Act to ban servicemembers for suing based on any injuries that “arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service.” The Feres doctrine’s domain has stretched to prevent just about anyone from suing the military Servicemembers have been effectively blocked from civil courts “As strained and improbable as this analysis may be its true danger has rested less in its immediate application to tort cases than in the foundation it has laid for a widely-metastasizing theory of intra-military immunity from any civil claim at all,” writes Rachel Natelson Legal Director at Service Women’s Action Network the seed of an ever-increasing body of flawed doctrinal offspring.” Judges have cited Feres to block the use of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which protects workers from sexual harassment and assault the ‘incident to service’ provision routinely cited as an impediment best fixed by Congress is nowhere to be found in federal statute making legislative reform something of an existential puzzle,” Natelson writes the Feres doctrine has eluded ownership for over half a century—if the courts won’t accept responsibility for their creation then it’s time for Congress to rescue it from their hands.” To reign in the Feres doctrine and protect rape victims “We may want to look at if we can create some exceptions for victims of sexual assault.” Help bring programs like Independent Lens to your PBS station Web Design by Gravitate 2022Then Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Hyten speaks during the Air Force Association symposium at the Pentagon Vazquez II/Department of Defense)Retired Air Force Gen formerly the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is awaiting a federal appellate court’s verdict on whether a civil suit against him will proceed to a jury trial on claims that he sexually assaulted then-Army Col who was Hyten’s aide during his tenure as head of U.S went public with the allegations in July 2019 shortly before his confirmation hearing to become the military’s No of inappropriately touching her in a hotel room during a prominent military affairs conference in California That claim forms the basis of her civil suit Hyten maintains the claims are false, and an Air Force investigation released in August 2019 found no evidence to back up Spletstoser’s allegations He was therefore not charged or administratively punished and was later confirmed by the Senate as vice chairman The retired colonel filed a lawsuit against Hyten in civil court later that year and seeks at least $100,000 in damages for emotional A district court in the Central District of California ruled in October 2020 that the suit could continue a Department of Justice lawyer representing Hyten on Monday pushed a three-judge panel at the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in California to dismiss the case The government argued that because the alleged incident occurred on a work trip and while the general was stopping by to discuss work matters the situation falls under a legal theory known as the Feres doctrine Feres dictates that troops cannot sue the federal government for injuries sustained while serving in the military with the exception of medical malpractice cases clearly shows that … her case is that he misused his authority at a military conference in a location where she would not have been” if not for her military service Kathryn Spletstoser sits in the audience as Gen John Hyten appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington for his confirmation hearing to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Andrew Harnik/AP)But the judges questioned whether the setting of the alleged assault should define the scope of the case or if Feres doesn’t apply because sexual assault isn’t a reasonable consequence of military operations “It is a type of activity that is too distinct from military activity to be considered something incident to military service,” argued Spletstoser’s lawyer Ariel Solomon “The fact that someone did not believe my client is not indicative that they should be immune from suit in their personal capacity.” If the 9th Circuit opts to proceed with the case it would mark a rare instance of hearing a military sexual assault case outside of the court-martial system Hyten accuser testifies in private before Senate panelAs lawmakers decide the fate of Gen. John Hyten’s nomination for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they met privately to interview the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her.By “Last year DoD prosecuted 4% of all the unrestricted reports and got a conviction in 1%,” Don Christensen a retired colonel who served as the Air Force’s chief prosecutor and now runs the advocacy organization Protect Our Defenders we have this robust system that holds people accountable so opening up the civil courts would be important.” It could take three months to a year for the court to rule on the case going to trial and Hyten’s team could appeal the lower courts’ decisions as far as the U.S Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021 Her work has appeared in the Washington Post was among the witnesses to testify before Congress in an April 30 hearing designed to focus on making the U.S military more responsive to medical needs of active duty personnel a Democrat representing California’s 14th Representative District has introduced legislation to amend the Feres Doctrine to allow victims of medical malpractice to hold their military doctors accountable for gross negligence Stirling is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Law and Military Policy in Huntington Beach a nonprofit organization that seeks to “strengthen the legal protections of those serving our nation in uniform.” the nation’s top brass have been protected from civil liability because of a judicial policy called the “Feres Doctrine.” after serving as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) military prosecutor for two decades in the California National Guard went back to college to become the nation’s only legal scholar focused primarily on this “Feres” policy Having defended a dissertation entitled “The Feres Doctrine: A Comprehensive Legal Analysis,” Stirling will graduate next week from Chapman University with a doctorate degree focused entirely on this military doctrine Stirling said amending the Feres Doctrine was one of the main driver’s to creating the Center for Law adding the Feres Doctrine has had a “devastating impact” on the morale of active-duty service members active-duty soldiers have no access to civil courts if they have been harmed by military doctors or by other service members such as if they have been sexually assaulted by their commanding officers or other active-duty personnel whose misdiagnosis by military doctors allowed his cancer to become terminal said Feres has left him with little recourse “The hardest thing I have to do is explain to my children when they ask me how is this happening?’ And I have no good answer,” Stayskal said who is battling terminal Stage IV metastatic lung cancer continued “That’s why I am coming up here to help convince these folks in Congress to change this This doctrine has effectively barred hundreds of servicemembers and their families any chance to be made whole for receiving negligent medical care.” who serves as Chairwoman of the Houses Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee thanked Stirling for his diligent legal research of the Feres Doctrine “While policymakers readily send military personnel abroad to fight and die they condone a policy where the troops cannot sue their doctors when they leave a towel marked “property of the U.S Army” in their stomach during routine surgery,” he told the committee “The thought that allowing a suit between doctor and patient (in the military) would affect good order and discipline is ridiculous.” We must support Rep Speier’s legislation to reform Feres Doctrine,” said Stirling Spier “this has been a very powerful hearing On the books for 69 years because Supreme Court justices decided to legislate It’s time for Congress to put on their britches and find a solution that brings justice to our service members.” “It was a very humbling experience,” said Stirling who said he was “honored to be called to testify” in an attempt to finally help “service members restore their legal rights to a civil solution Less than a year since its launch, Yango an international ride-hailing service by Russian tech giant Yandex has quickly made its mark on Ethiopia’s transport ecosystem With competitive pricing that sets it apart from other operators Yango’s marketing has proven irresistible for many passengers In a sector where new platforms often struggle to survive Yango’s rapid growth in user numbers mirrors the early success of Feres Yango has achieved 1 million downloads within just ten months attributes the company’s swift success to its robust offline and online marketing campaign He referred to the company’s partnerships with nearly 70 TikTok influencers on top of a brand ambassador to highlight the targeting of a tech-savvy younger demographic “Increased brand visibility and strong connections with potential users have been the result,” Yekenalem told Shega While close to 42 companies are registered to provide app-based taxi services in the capital and two institutions (Feres and Ride) have been dominating the market before A distinctive pricing and marketing strategy is becoming increasingly pivotal in acquiring market share in the industry nearing a decade in Ethiopia with a flag-down fee of 72 birr—nearly 30% lower than other providers—is also one of the key factors attracting users With a monthly growth of 600% in the number of users and a nearly 40% increase in registered drivers Yango is carving out its own slice of the market which includes a 50% discount on the first three trips has stirred significant interest from customers Yango’s 7% commission on driver earnings is lower than the industry standard Launched in 2018, Yango employs its own mapping and routing systems to locate and transport passengers. Globally, the platform operates in 12 other African countries and has around 600,000 registered drivers. The Russian-based service, which is valued at over 1.5 billion dollars, leverages this international experience to compete in Ethiopia Yango entered the nation through a franchise agreement with G2G IT Group designating the Group to manage service operations in the country The platform does not have country-specific apps and the ride-hailing app has been downloaded over 10 million times on the Play Store This means a significant amount of Yango’s global user base further indicating the importance of the nation in the app’s global presence Yango’s broad targeting of customers is different from the driver-centric strategies employed by newcomers like Adika and Safe these new ride-hailing companies are generating revenue in this highly competitive market Yango’s emphasis on capitalizing on its low flag-down fee has also created a negative impression among some drivers has no plans to switch to Yango from the older Feres and Ride companies he questions the financial feasibility of registering with the 10-month-old company “It is not worth the sweat,” Fitsum told Shega He also believes that orders for rides from the company come from distant neighborhoods making it both inconvenient and too costly with the small flag-down fare the apprehension of some drivers in registering with Yango has not held back the company from a six-fold increase in user base The country manager maintains that the company’s objectives are tethered to maintaining customer affordability and driver profitability “We don’t actually take away from the drivers,” Yekenalem says He explained how an incentive structure embedded into the system allows drivers to gain an additional 100-150 birr per trip despite it appearing unlucrative at first glance “We are using this as one of our marketing strategies to break into the market,” the country manager noted Yekenalem says drivers become eligible for this cashback after completing five trips and attributes the seeming distant pickup locations to the mismatch between registered drivers and the larger number of orders He suggested that there has been an improvement by referring to the drop in average waiting times to five minutes “It is clear that there is nothing wrong with our mapping system,” Yekenalem emphasized Indicative of Yango’s peculiar marketing strategy, the company has also partnered with Hamster Kombat a popular gaming platform that allows players to earn coins by currency mining A promo code weaved into the gaming platform has created further incentives for downloading and using Yango’s services “The young tech-savvy demographic aligns perfectly with our target audience,” the country manager underscored Yango ads are also featured prominently on Yacine a popular streaming application in Ethiopia for live sports broadcasts Yekenalem declined to share Yango’s marketing budget The country head plans to import features available in the rest of the world while also broadening their market to a younger demographic He foresees official announcements following the formation of a concrete plan and strategy Yango’s management is also considering on-boarding vehicles with Code-2 license plates—privately registered automobiles—to offer ride services along their regular commute routes the use of vehicles with Code-2 plates for ride-hailing is currently prohibited has been strongly advocating for this change has lobbied authorities to relax industry restrictions by permitting the recruitment of drivers with private license plates as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) recently suggested to Parliament that private vehicles should be allowed to carry passengers during rush hours Yango’s implementation of an incident reporting system is also providing the company with a competitive edge Safety has become a major concern for Ethiopian customers especially after recent high-profile incidents involving female passengers local artist Egitu made headlines with social media posts detailing her experience of sexual assault by a driver from Feres As attacks on both passengers and drivers increase concerns over safety have become more pertinent than ever granting companies that employ strict protocols a strong foothold in the market Yango’s swift rise in the Ethiopian market reflects a shift in the ride-hailing landscape its ability to address driver concerns while maintaining its competitive pricing will be crucial for its long-term sustainability in the nation and serve as a valuable lesson for other emerging ride-hailing companies Bookmark Etenat Awol Less than a year since its launch, Yango Launched in 2018, Yango employs its own mapping and routing systems to locate and transport passengers. Globally, the platform operates in 12 other African countries and has around 600,000 registered drivers. The Russian-based service, which is valued at over 1.5 billion dollars, leverages this international experience to compete in Ethiopia Yango’s broad targeting of customers is different from the driver-centric strategies employed by newcomers like Adika and Safe Indicative of Yango’s peculiar marketing strategy, the company has also partnered with Hamster Kombat Related NewsEthiopian Software Company Bets On Rent-to-Use SaaS Model with Monthly Subscriptions Starting at 5,000 ETB Ackerman is a Professor of Law at Wayne State University Law School He is affiliated with the Levin Center at Wayne Law which honors Senator Carl Levin's legacy by promoting fact-based bipartisan legislative oversight and civil discourse on matters of public policy He is also a member of the American Bar Association To the extent any opinions are expressed herein they are those of Professor Ackerman alone View all partners Members of the military who have long been barred by law from collecting damages from the federal government for injuries off the battlefield will finally be able to do so after Congress stepped in to amend the law The legislation represents progress for injured service members – but still limits who among them may press for damages government enjoyed “sovereign immunity,” a vestige of British rule when “the king could do no wrong” and the government could not be sued But in 1946, faced with the prospect of World War II veterans returning from the front only to be hit and killed in an accident on base, Congress enacted the Federal Tort Claims Act Congress felt that it was only fair to allow people to recover damages for personal injury from the government when the government was negligent or irresponsible about caring for people’s safety But later rulings limited servicemembers’ rights even more in ways not suggested by the language of the act The first of these was a case filed by the surviving family members of a soldier. Lt. Rudolph Feres was a decorated World War II veteran who had parachuted into Normandy on D-Day He survived that battle and others through the end of the war only to return to the U.S by the explosion of a boiler known to be faulty Feres’ widow also claimed that no fire guard had been posted on the fateful night Joined to the case were two soldiers who claimed malpractice by army surgeons The court decided that the existing benefits scheme for military deaths and injuries was ample and denied the claims To the further chagrin of the Feres family the controversial ruling took on the name the “Feres Doctrine.” Cases sustaining Feres expressed the concern that allowing civilian courts to intervene in cases of this type would interfere with military discipline the court declared that soldiers could not sue the government for damages for negligently caused injuries “incident to service,” even if they did not involve combat Later suits building on Feres limited soldiers’ rights even more – barring claims by a soldier allegedly raped by her drill sergeant and by members of the military harmed by their exposure to nuclear testing and the defoliant chemical Agent Orange All of these rulings meant that anyone who had the misfortune of getting hurt while on active duty could never sue for damages – while if the same person had gotten hurt on the job as a civilian The Feres Doctrine were therefore seen by many as unfair like the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia criticized Feres because of its departure from the plain language of the Federal Tort Claims Act which limits the exclusion to wartime “combatant activities.” Still others believe that Feres fails to hold the military accountable for the kind of mistakes for which others are required to pay damages The Feres Doctrine nevertheless has continued to hold sway, with the Supreme Court refusing to reconsider the doctrine as recently as May 2019. Justice Clarence Thomas, in a dissent from the court’s denial of certiorari in that case, Daniel v. United States paraphrased Justice Scalia in stating that “Feres was wrongly decided and heartily deserves the widespread almost universal criticism it has received.” speaking for the Supreme Court in the Feres case at least Congress possesses a ready remedy.” That “ready remedy” finally came almost seventy years later due to the persistence of a soldier suffering from terminal cancer Sergeant First Class Richard Stayskal is a former Green Beret and wounded Iraq veteran whose military health providers missed a 3-centimeter mass in one of his lungs on a CT scan After military physicians repeatedly attributed his health problems to asthma or pneumonia, Sgt. Stayskal learned from a civilian pulmonologist that he actually had stage 4 lung cancer. Sgt. Stayskal continues to receive treatment for his cancer, although he says it is deemed incurable Stayskal was barred by Feres from pursuing a malpractice case in court So Stayskal enlisted the support of California Congresswoman Jackie Speier, a Democrat, who introduced a bill to allow current and former service personnel to bring medical malpractice claims against government health providers by the survivors of someone who perished in a barracks fire That’s because the legislation only allows claims by those who allege to have been victims of medical malpractice by military health care providers And claims cannot be brought in federal court, as is normally the case under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Rather, they must be pursued through a Defense Department administrative procedure under regulations that the Department of Defense is required to draft Research suggests that most claimants don’t care whether their cases are decided through a court, an administrative procedure or even mediation. Rather, they care about having a respectful hearing in which a third party has carefully considered their views Those who worked to pass this legislation will likely scrutinize the Defense Department’s regulations and procedures to see whether such a forum has been provided [Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter.] a law that prevents service members and their families from seeking legal action against the military for injuries or other suffering caused by negligence In the audience at the House Armed Service Committee hearing was Capt. Katie Blanchard who wants people to know that Feres isn’t only preventing medical malpractice lawsuits ― it also blocks service members from holding accountable a chain of command who fails to protect them from preventable harm “I just feel like nobody has really identified or talked about the scope of what Feres is and how it affects people,” Blanchard told Army Times on Tuesday an Army civilian working under Blanchard at Fort Leavenworth doused her with a water bottle of gasoline and then lit a match She had warned her chain of command for months before her attack that Clifford Currie was menacing her according to a subsequent 15-6 investigation he accused her of racism and declared he would “take care of her” in front of another employee who was encouraged to keep quiet about the threat and Currie was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal court Blanchard filed a claim against Leavenworth an estimate of what it would cost to cover expenses like childcare during medical procedures and necessities like a special moisturizer to keep her extremely delicate grafted skin comfortable she got in touch with attorney Natalie Khawam the American people know how broad ― and the scope of it,” she said our military has blanket immunity in all cases.” Many of the headline-grabbing stories dealing with the law have included medical malpractice who testified Tuesday and is also represented by Khawam But the military is protected from legal action for anything involving service members and their families from split-second battlefield decisions that result in deaths or dismemberment up to and including workplace violence back home either from fellow service members or other Defense Department employees “All of us volunteer and we all really want to do this,” Blanchard said “I signed the line knowing that I could go overseas and do all of these dangerous things but I didn’t sign up to be attacked in the office.” Now part of the Warrior Transition Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord Blanchard wants to make a career as an Army civilian in patient safety she’s been speaking around the Army about workplace violence powerful policy that allows both service members and civilians to report harassment and have it dealt with and I don’t want you to want to do something,” she said she spoke on Thursday at the Defense Health Agency’s National Capital Region Workplace Violence Prevention Program Forum “DHA doesn’t have a workplace violence policy in place,” she said. “I don’t want, since they’re taking over the military medical system and she hopes any enacted policy will look at the full scope of workplace violence ― from harassment “Some policies call it disruptive behavior According to the Bureau of Lasbor Statistics (2016) Healthcare workers are nearly four times as likely to require time away from work as a result of violence Healtcare and social services account for 12.2% of the working population however nearly 75% of work assualts occur in the healthcare setting 78% of Emergency department physicians and 100% of emergency department nurses have experienced violence from patients within the last year Homicide is the second leading cause of workplace death for home healthcare workers 46% of nurses reported some form of workplace violence during their five most recent shifts If the overwhelming amount of research and data doesnt convience you that systems needs to change please listen to my story Sometimes it's hard to visualize the people on the other side of these statistics WASHINGTON – An appellate court panel rejected on Tuesday the $100-million wrongful death claim brought by the family of a Marine recruit from Taylor who died in a fall saying it was bound to do so under a much-criticized Supreme Court precedent Raheel Siddiqui's family brought the claim after investigators found evidence of hazing by Siddiqui's drill instructor prior to the 20-year-old recruit's death at the training base at Parris Island Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix in 2018 was convicted by a military court and sentenced to 10 years' confinement for mistreating recruits Felix called the former Truman High School valedictorian a "terrorist" and slapped him at least once during training before Siddiqui ran out a door in his barracks and leaped over a third-floor railing.  Siddiqui's death was ruled a suicide but his family has rejected that finding saying he wouldn't have killed himself as a faithful Muslim and son Responding to the dismissal of the claim by a three-judge panel for the 6th U.S though it was not immediately clear whether they intend to ask the appeals court to reconsider or the U.S "This case needs to be looked at specifically in parts, the wrongs committed against Raheel Siddiqui long before his enlistment and all that transpired after," Khan said "(His family members) are relentless in their pursuit for justice not only for their son but for (anyone) who wants to serve his or her country." But the panel upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss the case, saying it was bound to do so — whether it likes it or not — by the so-called Feres doctrine that precedent holds that the government cannot be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries sustained to active duty military personnel including training recruits, even if negligence was the cause As recently as this spring, Justice Clarence Thomas complained about the precedent as the Supreme Court turned back a claim involving alleged medical malpractice saying the "unfortunate repercussions" of Feres continue to "ripple through our jurisprudence." say that it is necessary to maintain order and discipline and not upend the relationship between command and its personnel "Plaintiffs call upon us to disregard or overrule Feres," the three-judge panel wrote "We would not be the first court to consider doing so 'We can think of no other judicially created doctrine which has been criticized so stridently "(But) Unless and until the Supreme Court overturns Feres A family's anguish: How did Raheel Siddiqui lose his life at Marines boot camp? Marine drill instructor in Taylor recruit's death gets 10 years for mistreatment Parris Island drill instructors face scrutiny after recruit's death Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter Vanessa Guillén is pictured during a rally in East Austin in 2020 shortly after her remains were identified and another soldier was accused of her killing It’s been more than two years since the murder of Vanessa Guillén Army who was stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen Investigators believe she was killed by another soldier at the base Before her death, Guillén told family members that she was being sexually harassed at work, which the Army confirmed. The family is now seeking $35 million in damages from the U.S. government and aims to prove that Guillén was sexually assaulted their lawyers will have to overcome a longstanding legal doctrine known as the Feres doctrine that protects the military and its members from these kinds of lawsuits a professor of law specializing in national security and military law at Southwestern Law School spoke to the Texas Standard about the challenges the lawsuit faces This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity: Texas Standard: Advocates trying to push to end sexual violence in the military say that the Defense Department has for decades used a particular legal doctrine to stop members of the military from suing for sexual assault and sexual harassment Could you say more about the Feres doctrine?  So it’s not just the Department of Defense It’s actually our federal courts and primarily the Supreme Court that has shielded – provided what’s called intramilitary immunity – for negligence and wrongdoing by military members in the military itself providing immunity from being sued under general tort law A civilian employer could be sued for something like the most classic example is medical malpractice the military cannot be because the Supreme Court said The military also has its own methods of remedy different channels to handle allegations of wrongdoing We’re going to leave the military alone.” And despite the fact that Congress itself passed this law we think the government should be sued for its negligence and wrongdoing just like a civilian employee in particular circumstances,” right But the Supreme Court took a very small exception within that law and made it this huge roadblock against suing the military for things like leaving a towel in someone’s knee when they’re being operated on Obviously Guillén’s attorneys believe that they have a case here – but with the Feres doctrine in place since the 1950s Well, the primary change has been really a pivotal decision by the 9th Circuit here in California regarding whether or not sexual assault is considered incident to service this bar to suing the military by a military member any injury that has arisen in the course of service – because you’re in the military basically – you’re barred from bringing it And so there have been numerous cases, including a case emanating from the famous sexual harassment and assault case Tailhook, back in the early 90s that said You have no redress for getting money damages in a court of law from the United States government for the sexual assault and harassment that happened in Tailhook But a few weeks ago and for the first time I don’t think this case should be dismissed because of this Feres bar because we don’t see how a sexual assault can be “incident to service.” This was on their personal time How in the world can egregious harm such as sexual assault be something that’s considered part of their military service You’re talking about a 9th Circuit opinion; we’re in the 5th Circuit Vanessa Guillén’s family did not file suit against the federal government yet; there is an administrative process [that] means they had to bring a claim against the federal government the government has six months to resolve that claim Then the Guillén family can bring suit if they so choose But one of the family members mentioned that they would bring it in California because an incident of sexual harassment – not assault but sexual harassment – occurred on a training base here in California for the family to be successful in any suit because the seminal case that was just decided a few weeks ago dealt with off-duty conduct in a civilian hotel and not some kind of sexual harassment that occurred on a military training base And I think folks need to be cautioned against seeing this 9th Circuit case as too much of a sea change especially because it can still be overruled by the entire 9th Circuit … and it can be overruled by the Supreme Court If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org ©2024 Texas Standard. A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin | Contact us and the state has asked the justices to take the case and reinstate it Over 70 years ago, the Supreme Court established the Feres doctrine: It ruled in Feres v. United States that although Congress generally waived the governments immunity in the Federal Tort Claims Act members of the armed forces cannot sue the federal government for injuries sustained on active duty the justices have been asked on several occasions most recently in 2019 to reconsider their ruling in Feres but have declined to do so over dissents from Justice Clarence Thomas The court on Monday once again refused to take up the question This time the facts were compelling: The case was brought by a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point who alleges that while at the academy she was subjected to sexual harassment and raped on campus by another cadet and that the schools policies didnt do enough to protect her came from a military family and was ranked high in her class A federal district court dismissed her claims under the FTCA and the court of appeals upheld that ruling reasoning that her claims were incident to service asking the justices to take her case and weigh in on whether the Feres doctrine should be overruled the justices should decide whether to limit the doctrine so that it would not apply to cases like hers involving service members who are injured by violations of military regulations during recreational activities (she was on a walk when the rape occurred) or while attending a service academy In a three-page dissent from the courts decision to deny review Thomas reasoned that under the text of the FTCA it shouldnt matter whether Doe was a member of the military because the FTCA waives the governments immunity from lawsuits brought by people who are injured when government employees are negligent but that exception does not apply to Does case and this case was wrongly decided as a result the Supreme Court should grant review to make clear what the Feres doctrine covers and what it does not Thomas noted while citing two different cases in two different federal appeals courts Feres sometimes bars claims of a drunken servicemember who drowns And although the court may be hesitant to take up this issue at all because it would require fiddling with a 70-year-old precedent that is demonstrably wrong perhaps the better answer is to bid it farewell involves two procedural questions related to patent eligibility There is no deadline for the acting solicitor general to provide the governments views in these cases whose attorneys contribute to SCOTUSblog in various capacities is among the counsel to the respondents in American Axle.] The justices once again did not act on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization the challenge to the constitutionality of Mississippis abortion law which they considered at their conference last week for the 12th consecutive time The justices next conference is scheduled for Thursday The court will issue orders from that conference on Monday This post was originally published at Howe on the Court Posted in Cases in the Pipeline, Featured Cases: Doe v. United States, American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC, Independent School District No. 283 v. E.M.D.H. ex rel. L.H. and S.D. Investigative stories and local news updates Coverage of the Hawaiʻi State legislature in 2025 Award winning in-depth reports and featured on-going series Get the week’s news delivered straight to your inbox Active service members are challenging a rule that insulates the government from liability for their injuries Five military service members filed suit against the federal government on Thursday after they consumed fuel-tainted water delivered by the U.S Army Chief Warrant Officer Elizabeth Thompson-Watson Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Jessup and Navy Petty Officer First Class Dustin Wallace 978 active-duty service members have filed pre-litigation claims with the Navy and are expected to join the litigation at a later date The claimants allege they were sickened and displaced from their homes when operations at the Navy’s Red Hill storage complex leaked thousands of gallons of fuel into the water supply that serves the Pearl Harbor area the government is insulated from liability when it comes to injury claims by service members The newly filed case will challenge that rule has asserted that the doctrine should not apply when military members are not injured in combat but rather sickened by contaminated water in their own homes “This is an important challenge to the Feres Doctrine on the eve of Veterans Day,” Baehr said in a statement on Thursday “Our soldiers cannot be mission-ready if they are poisoned at home.” have their own filed suit and are awaiting trial military teams are working to defuel Red Hill more than 84 million gallons had been drained The defense department has stated that 99% of the 104 million gallons that was stored there will be gone by January Unfortunately, being named a finalist for a Pulitzer prize doesn’t make us immune to financial pressures. The fact is, our revenue hasn’t kept pace with our need to grow, and we need your help Civil Beat is a nonprofit, reader-supported newsroom based in Hawaiʻi. We’re looking to build a more resilient, diverse and deeply impactful media landscape, and we hope you’ll help by supporting our essential journalism Civil Beat has been named the best overall news site in Hawaii for the 14th year in a row by the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.