Army overturns reprimand for officer who attended BLM protests
By Davis Winkie
Jan 6, 04:46 PM
An Army review board has overturned and destroyed a reprimand that a former Colorado Army National Guard lawyer received from his state’s leadership after he wrote an opinion article criticizing his leaders for investigating his participation in a May 2020 Black Lives Matter protest, according to documents obtained by Army Times.
Capt. Alan Kennedy, who has since transferred to the Army Reserve, called the ruling a “victory for the First Amendment and the right to protest and write about racism” when reached by Army Times. “The Army’s reversal of [the] unconstitutional reprimand vindicates what we have said since May 30, 2020: there is no military exception to the Constitution.”
The lawsuit already resulted in the National Guard Bureau declaring that federal restrictions on protest participation don’t apply to off-duty part-time troops. That has led to concerns about the military’s ability to enforce anti-extremism measures against off-duty Guardsmen, such as the Wisconsin National Guard soldier who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection last year.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/01/06/army-overturns-reprimand-for-officer-who-attended-blm-protests-sued-command/
