A federal judge has ruled against President Joe Biden’s Navy secretary and ordered the military branch to at least explain in greater detail why it had denied sailor Ronny Rutledge’s request to reinstate his Navy SEAL status.
The military’s Board for Correction of Naval Records “relied on the undisputed fact that Rutledge had been counseled numerous times without addressing Rutledge’s core contention that these counselings were improper, erroneous, and engineered to exact revenge for his suspected whistleblowing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher R. “Casey” Cooper wrote in his memorandum opinion. “Even under the relaxed standard of review, this sort of summary denial that skips over the petitioner’s primary allegation does not pass muster.”