Jake Smith
The Army was hit with a lawsuit on Friday after ignoring transparency inquiries regarding its decision to remove “Duty, Honor, Country” from the mission statement of a premier military academy, according to a copy of the suit obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Though “Duty, Honor, Country” has remained a staple in the Army at large, the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point announced in March that its mission statement was being updated to drop the three-word motto, in the spirit of reflecting the “Army values.” The Center to Advance Security In America (CASA), a watchdog organization, filed two separate Freedom of Information ACT (FOIA) requests in March to seek further information about Army officials’ “assessment” to alter the mission statement.
But CASA’s requests were never answered, prompting the national security organization to file a lawsuit with the goal of legally compelling the branch for relevant records, the lawsuit says.
“The American public has a right to know about the communications that led to the removal of ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ from West Point’s mission statement. At a time when our military is facing increasing threats from across the world, the Biden-appointed West Point Superintendent has prioritized the removal of this patriotic phrase from the Academy’s mission statement instead of focusing on molding competent and lethal future Army officers,” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick told the DCNF.
CASA alleges in the lawsuit that its first March 19 request, was never confirmed via the FOIA website, despite that being a normal part of the request process. CASA’s second request, filed a day later, was provided receipt confirmation with the note that it was “being sent to the Department of the Army. But the Army never acknowledged or responded to either request, according to the suit.
Over “185 days have elapsed” since the Army received both of CASA’s requests, according to the lawsuit, meaning that the branch had “not met its statutory obligations to provide the requested records, nor intends to meet them absent litigation.”
“Through the Army’s failure to make a determination within the time period required by law, CASA has constructively exhausted its administrative remedies and seeks immediate judicial review,” CASA alleges in the lawsuit. “The Army is wrongfully withholding non-exempt agency records requested by CASA by failing to produce non-exempt records responsive to its request.”
CASA’s lawsuit requested the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., to compel the Army to hand over the requested documents, including relevant records related to the assessment process of removing “Duty, Honor, Country” from West Point’s mission statement as well as the digital communications of the officials who were or may have been involved in the decision, including the West Point superintendent. The organization also requested the district court to provide compensation for any potential legal fees.
The military and the Pentagon under the Biden-Harris administration’s leadership have put a prime focus on social and left-wing initiatives, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and racial and gender quotas among servicemembers. The push comes even as several branches of the military struggle with recruitment and retention standards, as well as concerns of politicization and division.
“This is a great example of the woke military culture that this administration has encouraged,” Fitzpatrick said of West Point’s changed mission statement.
The Army declined to comment.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to note that the Army declined to comment on the matter.
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