Tues 8/17: Court Date to Challenge Military Stop-Loss

MEDIA ADVISORY - PRESS CONFERENCE

SOLDIER BRINGS FIRST CHALLENGE TO ARMY POLICY REQUIRING EXTENDED
MILITARY SERVICE FOR IRAQ OCCUPATION

Contacts: Michael S. Sorgen, attorney for Petitioner
Joshua N. Sondheimer, attorney for Petitioner
Marguerite Hiken, Co-chair, NLG Military Law Task Force
Tel: (415) 956-1360

Press Conference: Tuesday, August 17, 2004, at 1:00 p.m.
Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate, Press Room, 18th Floor,
San Francisco
(Use Turk Street Entrance)

Please note: cameras and recording equipment must be escorted by
security

Attorneys for a decorated combat veteran serving in the Army Reserve
will announce Tuesday the filing of a petition challenging a "stop loss"
order that requires the reservist to remain in the military beyond the
term of his enlistment for possible duty in Iraq. The reservist is
identified as "John Doe" for reasons of privacy. Doe’s case is the first
legal challenge to Army’s current "stop loss" program.

Under the program, tens of thousands of soldiers have been prevented
from retiring or leaving the military upon completing their enlistment
terms so that they may be deployed to Iraq. The petition asserts that
the program is arbitrary, unfair, and unauthorized by law. The stop
loss program has been widely criticized as a "backdoor draft."

Doe, a San Francisco Bay Area resident, served in combat during the
invasion of Iraq last year, and has more than nine years of active
service in the military. Doe currently serves as a reservist in the
California Army National Guard under a one-year enlistment. He has a
wife and two daughters, ages 6 and 3. The stop loss order could require
Doe’s return to Iraq for up to two years, and possible continued
military service beyond that time.

Doe is represented by attorneys Michael S. Sorgen and Joshua Sondheimer,
who are initiating the action in association with the Military Law Task
Force of the National Lawyers Guild. "This is a case that will be
closely watched by thousands of military personnel and their families,"
says Sorgen.

Doe is one of up to 40,000 service members forced to serve beyond the
expiration of their enlistment terms since the war in Iraq began.

"This lawsuit seeks to stop the forced retention of men and women like
John Doe who have already fulfilled their service obligations to the
country. Their enlistments should have ended, and they should now be
entitled to return to their families," says Sorgen.

"We are asking the federal court to uphold their lawful rights and not
allow the Army to create a new category of indentured servitude," says
Marguerite Hiken of the Military Law Task Force.

# END #

Joshua Sondheimer
Attorney at Law
Law Offices of Michael S. Sorgen
240 Stockton St., 9th Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94108
Tel: (415) 956-1360
Fax: (415) 956-6342
Email: jsondheimer [at] sorgen.net