LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Spc. David Qualls, who sued to challenge the Army's policy requiring him to serve longer than the term of his enlistment contract, is back in Iraq.
"He seems to be doing OK," Betty McElvana, Qualls' mother-in-law, said Monday. "My daughter talks to him over the Internet just about every day. She said that everything was going OK."
Qualls and seven other unnamed U.S. soldiers filed a lawsuit last month challenging the military's "stop loss" policy that allows the extension of active-duty deployments during times of war or national emergencies.
The lawsuit, filed while Qualls was on leave, argues that the enlistment contracts are misleading because they make no explicit reference to the policy. The eight soldiers are believed to be the first active-duty personnel to file such a lawsuit.
A judge denied Qualls' request for the restraining order after the government argued that allowing Qualls to stay on leave would set a dangerous precedent.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-soldier-enlistment-lawsuit,0,3495871.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlineshmmm..."dangerous precedent" for the court to rule that the govt had to make its contract policies clear? All that deciding-what's-right stuff can be SO restrictive.