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-Land of the Free

Family-Owned Company Sues Pentagon for Blocking It from Printing Bible Verses on Dog Tags

2021-12-23

[Breitbart] Shields of Strength, a small, family-owned, faith-based company, is suing the Pentagon after it blocked it from continuing to produce replica dog tags with Bible verses on them.

First Liberty Institute, on behalf of the company, filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon on December 17, asking a federal court to review and reverse decisions that forbid the company to print inspirational Bible verses on replica dog tags.

Mike Berry, general counsel for First Liberty, said in a statement, “It’s a cruel insult to our service members to deny them a source of inspiration, hope, and encouragement simply because it contains a religious message.”

“DOD officials caved to the empty threats of those who make their living by being offended. There’s no legal reason for the military to discriminate against Shields of Strength,” he said.

Shields of Strength has been making dog tag replicas with Bible verses for the past 20 years, including for military units at the request of commanders. According to Berry, now-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had requested them once for his unit.

Berry said after the military branches in 2011 trademarked certain words and logos associated with them, Shields of Strength obtained licenses to continue making dog tags featuring the words or logos associated with the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force on one side and the Bible verses on the other side.

However, an organization ironically named the Military Religious Freedom Foundation sent a complaint in 2019 to the Department of Defense saying the company should not be allowed to use its licenses with anything religious, prompting the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps to not renew licensing with the company.

Shields of Strength was founded in 1997 by Kenny Vaughan and his wife Tammie to encourage service members. One of its first orders came in 2001 from a military unit about to be deployed to Afghanistan — the 86th Signal Battalion. The couple donated 500 dog tags they called “Shields” to the unit.

The company also donated more than 50,000 pieces a month during the Iraq War, and one time even fulfilled a request for 30,000 pieces, according to First Liberty. The company has made more than five million dog tags and donated hundreds of thousands to active-duty members and veterans, as well as first responders and to the families of those fallen.

“It’s harsh and unkind that an outside group like the MRFF would pursue a radical agenda and seek to deny our service members—particularly those who may have to fight in the fiercest battles—the right to wear inspirational jewelry,” First Liberty Institute said.

“Nowhere are attacks on faith more repugnant than those aimed at the men and women who voluntarily placed their lives on the line to defend the freedom of others. That’s why First Liberty is fighting to make sure outside, anti-faith groups don’t get away with stripping away the rights of our men and women in uniform—especially their God-given freedom to find inspiration in their faith,” it said.

Posted by:Skidmark

#9 So no one here knows what legal ground the claim? WTH

Posted by: Woodrow 2021-12-23 21:20

#8 "Family owned"

Unless it's a Chinese mainland family, forget it.

Posted by: Besoeker 2021-12-23 17:35

#7 Lawfare against family businesses sure is easier than winning a shooting war against goat rapers -- Gen. Vannili Milley, probably

Posted by: Crutle Lumumba5639 2021-12-23 15:55

#6 So don't use any of the trademarked symbols. Are they necessary for the Bible verses to be inspiring?

Posted by: Rob Crawford 2021-12-23 12:42

#5 There are many other manufacturers issuing replica dog tags. I know of one using the same machinery used to fabricate WWII-era dog tags. Obviously the US DOD and all the service branches have trademarked all manner of logos & text by now, apparently that's the issue in the lawsuit, good luck to them if the DOD & the branches don't want to go along...

Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2021-12-23 12:22

#4 I don't think bureaucrats ever care if something is legal or not.

They are unquestioned experts at avoiding accountability and consequences. They just do this stuff and then fade into the bureaucratic background.

Posted by: Tom 2021-12-23 10:50

#3 How the hell is this even possible?

Anarcho-Tyranny makes possible the formerly unthinkable.

This is how our most valiant and patriotic soldiers and citizens come to be labeled Nazis, theocrats, "insurrectionists."

This is how communists become not just shitty little adjunct professors but actual West Point cadets, district attorneys, CIA chiefs, Comptrollers of the Currency, recipients of Congressional attention and praise.

Night is day, up is down. Welcome to Anarcho-Tyranny.

Posted by: Merrick Ferret 2021-12-23 10:16

#2 Fuck the woke pentagon. They will have no protection when shit goes kinetic. Most soldiers will go back and fight for their home.

Posted by: DarthVader 2021-12-23 10:03

#1 forbid the company to print inspirational Bible verses on replica dog tags.

How the hell is this even possible? Is the Pentagon going to stop Omar from printing the koran on toilet paper?

Seriously under what remote legal grounds could this be? Shit print them anyways and call them cat tags.

Posted by: Woodrow 2021-12-23 03:07

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