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Establishment of religion - in the Navy
July 07, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
Navy chaplains are of four types: Catholic, liturgical Protestant, non-liturgical Protestant, and "special worship."
Catholics are allowed to stay on duty beyond normal age limits. Others are not. That's the complaint made by a group of non-liturgical Protestant chaplains who sought a preliminary injunction against the Navy.
The DC Circuit faced the question of whether the plaintiffs could show the "irreparable harm" that is always necessary in order to get a preliminary injunction.
It's easy. Plaintiffs alleged an "establishment of religion" by the Navy, in violation of the 1st amendment. The court says that automatically makes up irreparable harm.
It took the court a lot of pages to figure it out, but in the end the rule was simple. Violation of the Establishment Clause is per se irreparable harm.
Now the case goes back to the trial court to sort out all the rest of the requirements for a preliminary injunction.
Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches v. England (DC Cir 07/07/2006).
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