PUSHING FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IN THE MILITARY

Listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Pre-Eminent Lawyers 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

"Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770.

JON KATZ, P.C., BRINGS THE ARMY TO COURT TO VINDICATE THE FIRST AMENDMENT 

July 1, 2004, Silver Spring, MD - Rejected by the Army in his efforts to run a paid advertisement challenging the motivations for the Iraq war, Larry W. Bryant has again taken the Army to federal court. In 1987, Mr. Bryant went to federal court to obtain the military's consent to publish his advertisements that had previously been rejected for publication in various military post newspapers. In 1994, Mr. Bryant returned to court to convince a federal judge to prohibit the Army from applying viewpoint-based restrictions in selecting commentary for publication in newspapers for military personnel.

Refusing to back down, this time Mr. Bryant has hired First Amendment lawyer Jonathan L. Katz of JON KATZ, P.C., to reverse the Army's rejection of his advertisement in the Pentagram newspaper seeking whistleblowers concerning the motivations for the Iraq war. Mr. Katz said: "The military's claim to be fighting for our fundamental rights clashes with its refusal to print Mr. Bryant's measured dissent about the Iraq war. It is a true honor to fight alongside Mr. Bryant and to underscore that the military is not above the First Amendment."

Mr. Bryant filed his lawsuit against the Army on June 30, 2004, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The case is Larry W. Bryant v. Donald H. Rumsfeld, et al., Civ. No. 1:04-cv-1125. 

See Mr. Bryant's court complaint at www.katzjustice.com/LarryBryant.pdf, in Adobe Acrobat tm format. (If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader tm and would like to download Adobe Acrobat Reader tm for free, please
click http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html ). The case has been electronically filed; for information on accessing electronically filed cases, click http://www.katzjustice.com/federallawyers.htm . 

January 7, 2005, Silver Spring, MD - Larry W. Bryant, by his counsel JON KATZ, P.C., filed an additional lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia after the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines refused to publish six additional paid classified advertisements, based on the content of those advertisements. See the complaint here. 

March 22, 2006, Silver Spring, MD - JON KATZ, P.C., is fighting for justice for Larry W. Bryant in the summary judgment stage. Click the following links to view our summary judgment motion, our opposition to the defendants' summary judgment motion, and our reply to the defendants' opposition to our summary judgment motion. To view the attachments to our summary judgment motion and our reply, and to see the defendants' filings, go to PACER to review the documents electronically filed in Larry W. Bryant v. Rumsfeld, et al. (D.D.C. 1:05-cv-00064-CKK). For information on accessing this and other electronically filed cases, click http://www.katzjustice.com/federallawyers.htm . 

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JON KATZ, P.C. - ADVOCATING FOR A JUST MILITARY, AND JUSTICE FOR SOLDIERS AND VETERANS

     Again and again, JON KATZ, P.C., goes to court on military-related matters and on behalf of soldiers and veterans. Our work in this area runs the spectrum from advocating for pro-military divorced veterans fighting for their retirement pay rights (click here) to defending radical peace activists prosecuted for hammering on warplanes (click here), and many cases in between. Active military personnel often come to us for spirited criminal defense, where avoiding a conviction is important both for liberty and career. 

Army Times (December. 1, 2003) -- Partner Jon Katz's article opposing the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act. See article here. See more here from the website of the divorced veterans' organization that hired Jon Katz.