Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
A Marine who was court martialed for refusing to take down a biblical verse from her workplace computer is appealing, and Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry says she has a good chance of reversing the conviction.
“If the government can order a Marine not to display a Bible verse, they could try and order her not to get a religious tattoo or go to church on Sunday,” Berry said, the Daily Mail reported. “Restricting a Marine’s free exercise of religion is blatantly unconstitutional.”
Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling was convicted months ago at a court martial hearing for refusing a superior’s order to remove a Bible verse from her computer. At the time, she was serving at Camp Lejuene in North Carolina.
The verse, a bit altered from the Bible phrase, read: “No weapons formed against me shall prosper,” Fox News reported.
Ultimately, Sterling was reduced in rank to private and dishonorably discharged from the Marines.
Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement has joined Liberty Institute’s Berry in fighting for Sterling, under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The merits of her discharge were based on these arguments: “The military judge found that the sign’s verbiage was biblical in nature, that the desk was shared with another Marine and the signs were visible to other Marines who came to the appellant’s desk for assistance. The implication is clear: the junior Marine sharing the desk and the other Marines coming to the desk for assistance would be exposed to biblical quotations in the military workplace. It is not hard to imagine the divisive impact to good order and discipline that may result when a service member is compelled to work at a government desk festooned with religious quotations, especially if that servicemember does not share that religion,” the court found, the Daily Mail reported.
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