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Man who sued Air Force to talk at UNM Law School today.
Albuquerque lawyer Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate and former Reagan White House attorney, will speak on "The Fight To Keep Church and State Separate" at 5:30 p.m. today at the University of New Mexico School of Law, room 2401. The talk is sponsored by Ecumenical Voices for Democracy and three chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.
Weinstein filed suit in U.S. District Court today claiming Air Force Academy senior officers and cadets have illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school. For details, go to The Associated Press story on the Web page.
Weinstein, who has had two sons at the Air Force Academy, made national headlines this spring demanding a congressional investigation into what he called "a constitutional train wreck" at the academy.
Weinstein alleged that academy leadership had failed to deal with what he said was systemic religious bigotry — principally by evangelical Christians — at the institution.
Academy officials, Weinstein told Journal columnist Jim Belshaw last June, "continue to view (reports of discrimination) as a religious issue and it’s not … It’s a constitutional issue."
The Air Force in May named a task force headed by Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, deputy chief of staff for personnel, to look into the "religious climate" at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
The task force reported in June that its investigation found "well-intended but wrong" expressions of faith by some instructors and senior officers, CNN reported in June.
"The root of this problem is not overt religious discrimination, but a failure to fully accommodate all members’ needs and a lack of awareness over where the line is drawn between permissible and impermissible expression of beliefs," CNN quoted the report’s conclusion.
Weinstein told Belshaw in June that he was never interviewed by the task force but said someone from the task force did call to demand he stop criticizing them. Tonight’s talk is free and open to the public.
