A Texas company that has made and sold military-style dog tags bearing crosses and Bible verses has sued the Department of Defense to reinstate its license to use trademarked emblems of the armed forces.
The company Shields of Strength notes that the Defense Department revoked its license to use military logos following a 2019 complaint from the watchdog group Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Its lawsuit claims that the Pentagon’s policy that says “DOD marks may not be licensed for any purpose intended to promote … religious beliefs” violates the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and the practice of religion.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas by the public interest law firm First Liberty Institute, which is representing Shields of Strength. It names Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as a defendant — and points out that Mr. Austin requested “thousands” of the dog tags when he was an Army general in charge of the 3rd Infantry and 10th Mountain divisions.
The Pentagon’s public affairs office told The Washington Times via email, “We do not comment on ongoing lawsuits.”
“Our military units continue to request these by the thousands … because they’re so popular and they provide a great source of hope and inspiration and encouragement to our service members when they are in harm’s way,” said First Liberty attorney Michael D. Berry. “We believe that it’s wrong for the DoD to capitulate to the demands of an activist group.”
Michael L. Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, stressed that only dog tags “with an official DoD emblem” are permitted under the Pentagon policy.
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“The regulations make it clear that the licensee cannot advance any partisan political or religious type of perspective, and that clearly is the case here,” Mr. Weinstein said in a telephone interview. “It implies endorsement and validation [of a particular religion] of our honored military.”
“When you stick [the emblem] behind something, in this case, this organization is trying to proselytize the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he added.
“We’re not a Christian country. Christianity has no special place as a matter of law in this country any more than Satanism does, or atheism does, or for that matter, the worship of Spider-Man,” Mr. Weinstein said. “The beauty of this country is that everybody is supposed to be equal.”
In the court filing, Shields of Strength attorneys contend that it “is arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of discretion for the DoD to conclude that ‘religious belief’ may not be associated with its trademarks when soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery and military cemeteries around the world have headstones in the shape of Christian crosses and the Star of David and include both religious and non-religious phrases.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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