#Veterans alleging they were sexually assaulted in the #military have lost their latest lawsuit.

In a 25-page decision, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed the suit brought by Ariana Klay and 10 others who claim they were “raped, sexually assaulted, stalked, . . . and severely harassed” while on active duty and then retaliated against for reporting the offenses. The suit asserted military leaders created and maintained a hostile military environment that permitted sexual assault and retaliation to continue.

Judge Jackson summed up the politically sensitive case and its legally inevitable resolution succinctly:

"The issue...is not whether the culture described in the complaint exists, whether it is deplorable, or whether plaintiffs suffered harm at the hands of the perpetrators of these criminal acts and those who sheltered them from justice or further victimized plaintiffs. The factual recitations...describe brutal and criminal assaults, compounded by a degrading and humiliating institutional response, and they depict an unacceptable environment in need of repair from the top down.

But the question posed by the defense motion is whether a court has the power to provide the particular sort of remedy sought here for the specific injustices alleged in the complaint. That is a purely legal question, and its answer is no."

The fatal flaw in the lawsuit, Jackson concluded, is in part the legal rule that the federal government is not liable for injuries to servicemen where the injuries arise "out of or are in the course of activity incident to (military) service."