Arnold v. Secretary of the Navy, (D DC, April 21, 2020) is the latest installment in long-running litigation against the U.S. Navy by a group of non-liturgical Protestant chaplains who claim that the Navy discriminated against them. In a 2018 opinion (which is currently on appeal to the D.C. Circuit), the chaplains' broad challenges to Navy chaplain selection board policies and procedures were rejected, but the court allowed plaintiffs to file a new complaints-- which are at issue here-- claiming discrete instances of individual discrimination, retaliation and constructive discharge. Many of these claims were dismissed under the doctrine of
res judicata. The court reluctantly concluded that plaintiffs, with limitations, can file new complaints raising those individual claims. The court said in part:
As demonstrated by this very case, plaintiffs and their counsel persist in filing repetitive and duplicative complaints despite having received lengthy decisions outlining precisely why their systemic challenges fail....
Based on plaintiffs’ actions thus far and their insistence that repetitious filings and forum shopping are mandatory to vindicate their interests, the Court deems it surpassingly likely that absent a pre-filing injunction, the refiling of any surviving claims will almost certainly be broadened to include challenges to the Navy’s selection board policies and procedures that have already been resolved by this Court—in the 2018 opinion and again today.... Consequently, the Court concludes that a narrowly tailored prospective filing restriction is necessary.
The Court will sever the surviving retaliation, constructive discharge, and interference with religious free speech claims. And it will permit plaintiffs to refile those ad hoc claims in this Court or any other appropriate district Court, in individual complaints (not joined with any other plaintiff). However, any plaintiff who wishes to refile his or her claims in any federal court must first seek leave from this Court within thirty days, that is, by not later than May 21, 2020.
