Opinion ID: 683501
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Naval Academy Regulations

Text: 21 The familiar parameters of rational basis review were recently reiterated by the Supreme Court in Heller v. Doe, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2637, 125 L.Ed.2d 257 (1993). 3 [R]ational-basis review in equal protection analysis 'is not a license for courts to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices.'  Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2642 (citations omitted). The government, moreover, has no obligation to produce evidence to sustain the rationality of a [regulatory] classification. Id. Because a classification neither involving fundamental rights nor proceeding along suspect lines is accorded a strong presumption of validity, id.,  '[t]he burden is on the one attacking the [governmental] arrangement to negative every conceivable basis which might support it,' whether or not the basis has a foundation in the record. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2643 (citations omitted). This presumption of rationality does not apply merely to congressional or state legislative schemes, but extends to administrative regulatory action as well, such as the military regulations at issue here. See Pacific States Box & Basket Co. v. White, 296 U.S. 176, 186, 56 S.Ct. 159, 163-64, 80 L.Ed. 138 (1935). The classification is not subject to courtroom factfinding and may be based on rational speculation unsupported by evidence or empirical data. FCC v. Beach Communications, Inc., --- U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 2096, 2098, 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1993). The dissent is quite mistaken in asserting that under rational basis review the government's position is weakened if it does not produce evidence to support (demonstrate) its regulatory proposition. See dissent at 709. It is hard to imagine a more deferential standard than rational basis, but when judging the rationality of a regulation in the military context, we owe even more special deference to the considered professional judgment of appropriate military officials. Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503, 509, 106 S.Ct. 1310, 1314, 89 L.Ed.2d 478 (1986). 22 Under this line of precedent we are required to ask two questions of the regulations. First, are they directed at the achievement of a legitimate governmental purpose? Second, do they rationally further that purpose? The first of these questions is not even in dispute in this case. As we have noted, Steffan concedes that the military may constitutionally terminate service of all those who engage in homosexual conduct--wherever it occurs and at whatever time the conduct takes place. 4 Counsel at oral argument further admitted, in connection with a discussion focused on the DOD Directives, that the military could ban even those who reveal an intention to engage in such conduct. It is common ground, then, that the regulations would be serving a legitimate purpose by excluding those who engage in homosexual conduct or who intend to do so. 5 23 The dispute between the parties is thus limited to the question whether the regulations (focusing now on the Academy regulations), by requiring the discharge of those midshipmen who describe themselves as homosexual--whether or not the Academy has information establishing that an individual has engaged in homosexual conduct or intends to do so--are rational. Steffan first argues that there is no necessary factual connection between such self-description and such conduct. But Steffan relies primarily on a more subtle and novel argument. Even if the government could rationally, as a factual matter, draw a connection between the statement and the conduct, other legal considerations prevent the government from so doing. The military may not, according to Steffan, punish homosexuals solely on the basis of their status. Nor may the military presume that self-declared homosexuals will actually engage in homosexual conduct, for such conduct is illegal under the Code of Military Justice. (Sodomy is prohibited under 10 U.S.C. Sec. 925 (1988).) Such a presumption--that someone will actually break the law--is inconsistent, he argues, with our legal traditions. 24 We consider first whether the Academy regulation has a rational factual basis. The appropriate question, it seems to us, is whether banning those who admit to being homosexual rationally furthers the end of banning those who are engaging in homosexual conduct or are likely to do so. The Academy can treat someone who intends to pursue homosexual conduct in the same manner as someone who engages in that conduct, because such an intent is a precursor to the proscribed conduct and makes subsequent homosexual conduct more likely than not. And the military may reasonably assume that when a member states that he is a homosexual, that member means that he either engages or is likely to engage in homosexual conduct. The inference seems particularly valid in this case because Steffan made no attempt to clarify what he meant by the term. He did not specify (nor was he asked by the Board) whether he had engaged in homosexual conduct in the past, whether he was presently engaged in homosexual conduct, whether he intended to engage in homosexual conduct in the future, or whether all three were true. Indeed, as we noted, he had previously invoked his right to remain silent when questioned on these subjects. Nor did Steffan ever indicate that his answer to the Board referred to homosexual orientation as a concept implicating only wants or thoughts unrelated to conduct--a meaning that he now suggests was a possible interpretation of the term and which the dissent embraces. He left it to the Board to draw what he apparently thought were the ordinary inferences the term homosexual suggests. These ordinary inferences are reflected in the Academy regulations and were the apparent bases for the Board's conclusions. 6 The dissent's deconstruction of Steffan's terse response overlooks the obvious point that Steffan assumed that the Board would fully understand what he meant. 25 Admittedly, it is conceivable that someone would describe himself as a homosexual based on his orientation or tendencies (and, perhaps, past conduct), notwithstanding the absence of any ongoing conduct or the probability of engaging in such conduct. That there may be exceptions to the assumption on which the regulation is premised is irrelevant, however, so long as the classification (the regulation) in the run of cases furthers its purpose, and we readily conclude that it does. As then-Judge Kennedy pointed out in Beller v. Middendorf, 632 F.2d 788 (9th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 855, 102 S.Ct. 304, 70 L.Ed.2d 150 (1981): 26 Nearly any statute which classifies people may be irrational as applied in particular cases. Discharge of the particular plaintiffs before us would be rational, under minimal scrutiny, not because their particular cases present the dangers which justify Navy policy, but instead because the general policy of discharging all homosexuals is rational. 27 Id. at 808 n. 20 (citation omitted). The rule of law presupposes the creation of categories. 28 The military thus may rely on presumptions that avoid the administratively costly need to adduce proof of conduct or intent, so long as there is a rational basis for believing that the presumption furthers that end. And the military certainly furthers its policy of discharging those members who either engage in, or are likely to engage in, homosexual conduct when it discharges those who state that they are homosexual. The special deference we owe the military's judgment necessarily affects the scope of the court's inquiry into the rationality of the military's policy. Compare dissent at 709. Whether a certain course of conduct is rational does not depend solely upon the degree of correlation that exists between a surface characteristic and a corresponding hidden trait. For the question whether the degree of correlation justifies the action taken--i.e., whether it is rational--necessarily depends on one's assessment of the magnitude of the problem the action seeks to avoid. The military is entitled to deference with respect to its estimation of the effect of homosexual conduct on military discipline and therefore to the degree of correlation that is tolerable. Particularly in light of this deference, we think the class of self-described homosexuals is sufficiently close to the class of those who engage or intend to engage in homosexual conduct for the military's policy to survive rational basis review. 29 Because removing from the military all those who admit to being homosexual furthers the military's concededly legitimate purpose of excluding from service those who engage in homosexual conduct, Steffan's argument at bottom must be based on the notion that the classification drawn by the military is impermissibly over-inclusive--that the military may not presume that all admitted homosexuals will engage in homosexual conduct because some homosexuals would not. However, 30 courts are compelled under rational-basis review to accept a legislature's generalizations even when there is an imperfect fit between means and ends. A classification does not fail rational-basis review because it is not made with mathematical nicety or because in practice it results in some inequality. The problems of government are practical ones and may justify, if they do not require, rough accommodations--illogical, it may be, and unscientific. 31 Heller, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2643 (quoting Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1161, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970) and Metropolis Theatre Co. v. Chicago, 228 U.S. 61, 69-70, 33 S.Ct. 441, 443, 57 L.Ed. 730 (1913)). 7 32 Steffan seeks to end-run this analysis by arguing that a prohibition triggered simply by an admission of homosexuality is one based on status rather than conduct, and therefore is legally impermissible regardless of its rational relationship, as a factual matter, to the military's objective. As the panel that initially decided this case put the point, America's hallmark has been to judge people by what they do, and not by who they are. Steffan v. Aspin, 8 F.3d 57, 70 (D.C.Cir.1993), vacated and rehearing en banc granted (D.C.Cir. Jan. 7, 1994). In our view, however, Steffan's attempt to invoke a rule against punishment based on status is unavailing, because it derives from a misunderstanding of constitutional law. 33 It is true that the Constitution forbids criminal punishments based on a person's qualities--we assume that this is what is meant by status--rather than on his or her conduct. See Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962). Yet, this proposition has never meant that employment decisions--which is what this case is about--cannot be made on such a basis. One cannot be put in jail for having been born blind (although a blind person who drives a truck and kills someone could be jailed for his act). But it obviously would be constitutional for the military to prohibit blind people from serving in the armed forces, even though congenital blindness is certainly a sort of status. The logic of Steffan's argument and of the original panel's decision--that America's hallmark prohibits punishment (which term is meant to encompass discharge decisions) based on a person's status--would mean that the military acts unconstitutionally if it refuses to enlist blind individuals. 34 It is asserted that one does not choose to be homosexual and that therefore it is unfair for the military to make distinctions on that basis. But whether or not one's homosexuality is genetically predetermined, one's height certainly is. Steffan conceded at oral argument that the Navy's maximum height restrictions are constitutional because they rationally further a legitimate naval purpose. That concession amounts to an admission that employment decisions based on a person's characteristics are subject to the same analysis as decisions based on a person's conduct. Both are tested to see whether they rationally further a legitimate purpose. 35 The controversy before us is quite analogous to Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976) (per curiam), in which the Supreme Court upheld a mandatory retirement age of 50 for police officers on the grounds that the classification rationally furthered the government's purpose of excluding those who lacked the physical conditioning to be officers. See id. at 314-17, 96 S.Ct. at 2567-69. In other words, the Court upheld a classification based on status--after all, a classification based on age turns on how old someone is, not on what he can do--that was aimed prophylactically at preventing the risk of unsatisfactory conduct. The connection between homosexuality and homosexual conduct is at least as strong (indeed, it seems much stronger) as the relationship upheld in Murgia between age--a paradigmatic status--and unsatisfactory job performance. The dissent would distinguish Murgia and our other examples on the grounds that a self-declared homosexual can control his sexual drives, whereas no one can hold back the process of aging. But people can and do manage to keep in superb physical condition even in advanced age. Murgia upheld the mandatory retirement age for police officers as reasonable not because every officer becomes infirm at 50, but rather because it was permissible to require retirement in every case despite the possible alternative of using medical examinations to indicate which officers over 50 were still fit to serve. The state's method was over-inclusive, but it was not irrational. Id. at 314, 96 S.Ct. at 2567. Similarly, in this case, the possible existence of some self-identified homosexuals who do not and would not act on their desires in a military or civilian setting does not render irrational a regulation that reaches the class as a whole. Just as age can be used as a rough proxy for diminishing physical capacities, here we think that a statement that one is a homosexual can rationally be used by the Navy as a proxy for homosexual conduct--past, present, or future. 36 The government's right to rely on a classification based on identifiable characteristics as a proxy for conduct was also sanctioned in New York City Transit Auth. v. Beazer, 440 U.S. 568, 99 S.Ct. 1355, 59 L.Ed.2d 587 (1979), in which the Court found that the Transit Authority's policy of barring employment to drug addicts was rational as applied to methadone users enrolled in a treatment program. Given the legitimate inference that ... a degree of uncertainty [regarding future drug use while still in the program] persists, id. at 591, 99 S.Ct. at 1368, the government was entitled to assume that an addict might engage in unacceptable conduct while on the job. The dissent argues that the presumption in Beazer was based on indications of past conduct, since one would not be in a methadone program unless one had previously taken drugs. Dissent at 715. But surely the logic of the opinion indicates that the case would not have been decided differently if the Transit Authority had excluded as well those who stated that they were heroin addicts. Indeed, a statement can be a more reliable predictor of future (or present) behavior than evidence of past conduct. The unqualified statement I am a homosexual might well be more indicative of future homosexual conduct than a determination that someone had in the past engaged in such conduct, perhaps under unusual conditions or in brief experimentation. In either case, a correlation with future conduct is certainly to be expected; the only issue is the degree of correlation. As we have said, we are persuaded that in this case the correlation is more than sufficient to justify the government's policy. 8 37 To be sure, it would not pass even rational basis review for the military to reject service members because of characteristics--such as race or religion or the lack of inherited wealth--that have absolutely no bearing on their military service. 9 Homosexuality, by contrast, is not irrelevant to homosexual conduct. And once Steffan concedes that the military may constitutionally seek to prevent the latter, his analogy to a hypothetical exclusion of those of a particular race or religion fails. 38 Nevertheless, Steffan, in order to make his point, would have us see homosexual status--which is all that he should be thought to have acknowledged--as conceptually unrelated to homosexual conduct. Although there may well be individuals who could, in some sense, be described as homosexuals based strictly on an inchoate orientation, certainly in the great majority of cases those terms are coterminous. 10 Homosexuality, like all forms of sexual orientation, is tied closely to sexual conduct. As the Seventh Circuit reasoned: 39 It is true that actual lesbian conduct has not been admitted by plaintiff on any particular occasion, and the Army has offered no evidence of such conduct. Judge Gordon found no reason to believe that the lesbian admission meant that plaintiff was likely to commit homosexual acts. We see it differently. Plaintiff's lesbian acknowledgement, if not an admission of its practice, at least can rationally and reasonably be viewed as reliable evidence of a desire and propensity to engage in homosexual conduct. Such an assumption cannot be said to be without individual exceptions, but it is compelling evidence that plaintiff has in the past and is likely to again engage in such conduct. To this extent, therefore, the regulation does not classify plaintiff based merely upon her status as a lesbian, but upon reasonable inferences about her probable conduct in the past and in the future. The Army need not shut its eyes to the practical realities of this situation, nor be compelled to engage in the sleuthing of soldiers' personal relationships for evidence of homosexual conduct in order to enforce its ban on homosexual acts, a ban not challenged here.... The Army need not try to fine tune a regulation to fit a particular lesbian's subjective thoughts and propensities. 40 Ben-Shalom v. Marsh, 881 F.2d 454, 464 (7th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1004, 110 S.Ct. 1296, 108 L.Ed.2d 473 (1990) (emphasis added). 41 The dissent insists that homosexual self identification and homosexual conduct are not coterminous, or at least have not been proved in this case or any other case to be coterminous. Dissent at 709. As we have already noted, however, the dissent's reasoning--that the government's failure to produce evidence (demonstrate) that its inference is rooted in reality undermines its position--is predicated on an incorrect view of constitutional law, for which the dissent miscites Heller, see id., and relies on recent district court decisions challenging the military's ban on homosexuals which simply represent an undisciplined rebellion against the governing constitutional doctrine. Id. at 711-12. It is not the government's burden to establish the exact degree of correlation between those who describe themselves as homosexual and those who engage in homosexual conduct--let alone to show that the concepts are coterminous. Indeed, the theory of rational basis review ... does not require the [government] to place any evidence in the record. Heller, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2642 (emphasis added). Neither appellant nor the dissent, it must be emphasized, actually denies that there is a correlation (we are, after all, speaking of those who openly identify themselves as homosexuals, not of those who might simply experience what might be interpreted as a fleeting homosexual impulse). The dissent does, however, quote approvingly from a district judge who asserted, inter alia, that there is almost no correlation between an individual's sexual 'orientation' and his or her sexual conduct. Dissent at 711-12. Even defining orientation in the broadest possible terms, we think this assertion is preposterous. 42 The government's understanding of what is meant when an individual identifies himself or herself without qualification as a homosexual is identical to the view of Judge Reinhardt, perhaps the federal judiciary's most vocal proponent of constitutional protections for homosexuals in military or civilian life. See, e.g., Reinhardt, The Court and the Closet: Why Should Federal Judges Have to Hide Homosexuality?, Washington Post, Oct. 31, 1993, at C3. In his dissent in Watkins v. United States Army, 847 F.2d 1329, 1353 (9th Cir.1988), in which he sharply criticized Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106 S.Ct. 2841, 92 L.Ed.2d 140 (1986), he said: 43 Even if we define the class as those who have a 'homosexual orientation,' its members will consist principally of active, practicing homosexuals.... 44 ... To pretend that homosexuality or heterosexuality is unrelated to sexual conduct borders on the absurd. What distinguishes the class of homosexuals from the class of heterosexuals is not some vague 'range of emotions,' but the nature of the member's sexual proclivities or interests.... 45 ... Whether the group is defined by status or by conduct, its composition is essentially the same. Id. at 1360-61 & n. 19. 11 46 We need not endorse Judge Reinhardt's unequivocal position or his harsh criticism of the reasoning that is now relied upon by our dissenting colleagues. It is sufficient to recognize that the government's presumption, as embodied in the Academy regulations, is certainly rational given that the human sexual drive is enormously powerful and that an open declaration that one is a homosexual is a rather reliable indication as to the direction of one's drive. 47 The dissent would employ the military's new policy, adopted in 1993, (which of course is not formally before the court) as an indication that the military has implicitly conceded that the Academy regulations (and former DOD Directives) were irrational. That proposition is a non sequitur. In light of the extremely deferential nature of rational basis review, there would always be a range of policy choices that would meet that standard. A shift from one of those choices to another hardly suggests that the government believes the former was unconstitutional. In any event, under the new policy, Steffan's statement--which we again emphasize is what this case is about--would be taken to mean just what the Academy Board apparently thought it meant. The new Directives provide that a statement by a Service member that he or she is a homosexual ... creates a rebuttable presumption that the Service member engages in homosexual acts or has a propensity or intent to do so. DOD Directive 1332.14.H.1.b. (2) (Dec. 22, 1993). To be sure, under the new policy, the government explicitly disavows any concern with a service member's totally private homosexual orientation, meaning his  sexual attractions;; but however that language might be applied in future cases, it obviously would have no relevance to a service member who, like Steffan, has disclosed that he is a homosexual. 48 Certainly, individuals like Steffan who identify themselves as homosexual in a military setting--where a declaration of homosexuality is grounds for discharge--convey the impression that they are not in doubt as to the direction of their sexual drive. The inference drawn by the government in this sort of case is thus even stronger than it might be in civilian life, where it is more conceivable that an individual would experiment with such an identification. The dissent asserts that the fear of discharge would prevent a self-identified homosexual from actually engaging in homosexual conduct, see dissent at 712, but its reasoning overlooks the point that such fears, if present, would presumably also have discouraged the initial statement, particularly if a person were unsure of his or her identification and its relationship to the military's definition. Given that the military's response is the same in each case--discharge--it is unclear why the dissent thinks the deterrent would affect only the later decision. 49 Even if the assumption that declared homosexuals will engage in homosexual conduct is reasonable in certain contexts, Steffan maintains that it is nevertheless impermissible for the military to act on that assumption; it implies that service members will engage in criminal misconduct--violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Steffan argues that such an assumption flies in the face of core traditions of American jurisprudence. Although Steffan's argument has a certain superficial attractiveness, it seems to us that upon close examination it is more clever than real. First of all, the Academy regulations reach all homosexual conduct--a category of actions that may include conduct that is not illegal under the Code, which proscribes sodomy. More important, we think that when a service member declares or openly admits that he is a homosexual without any explanation, the Academy may rationally take that statement, at least for purposes unrelated to criminal enforcement, as highly likely to be an admission of homosexual conduct or intent. In a discharge proceeding, the Navy need not conduct an inquisition to test whether a particular midshipman possesses an idiosyncratic view of the term. When an individual's statement can reasonably be taken to evidence a propensity to engage in certain conduct, the military may certainly take that individual at his word. 50 The authority Steffan presents to support his point does not bear on his case. Steffan principally relies on Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540, 112 S.Ct. 1535, 118 L.Ed.2d 174 (1992), in which the Supreme Court overturned petitioner's conviction on charges of receiving pornography through the mail, holding that government agents may not originate a criminal design or implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to commit a criminal act. Id. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 1540. But the government's obligation to prove predisposition in an entrapment prosecution has no relevance to whether the military may assume that a serviceman identifying himself as a homosexual is likely to engage in homosexual conduct. 12 This is not a criminal case; Steffan was not charged with misconduct, and therefore the constitutional protections we accord criminal defendants are not applicable. 13 51 Steffan claims that, in contrast to its assumption about homosexuals' behavior, the military does not make a similar assumption with respect to heterosexuals and that therefore the inference directed against homosexuals reflects impermissible bias. Acts of sodomy by heterosexuals are also misconduct under the Code of Military Justice, and yet the military does not presume that heterosexuals will engage in that practice. 14 It is not clear just what military procedure Steffan asserts is based on this allegedly contrary assumption about heterosexuals. In any event, as the government responds, to criminalize one form of sexual conduct between heterosexuals is not the same as prohibiting all sexual conduct between homosexuals; the latter puts a much greater restraint on sexual drives--one that the military reasonably believes is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. The military presumes, in parallel fashion, that homosexuals are as likely to engage in homosexual conduct as heterosexuals are likely to engage in heterosexual conduct. Homosexuals and heterosexuals are, however, differently situated in that heterosexuals have a permissible outlet for their particular sexual desires whereas homosexuals in the military do not. The temptations facing heterosexuals, moreover, are less compelling than those that homosexuals would encounter, because men and women are quartered separately. They are separated because the military rationally assumes that heterosexuals, like homosexuals, are likely to act in accordance with their sexual drives whether or not such actions would be misconduct. (Under the dissent's logic--that it is irrational to infer sexual conduct from indicia of sexual tendencies--even separating men and women could be thought unconstitutional. 15 ) The military obviously could not eliminate the difficulties of quartering homosexuals with persons of the same sex by totally segregating homosexuals. Besides the troubling implications of such a separation, putting all homosexuals together would not diminish their mutual sexual attractions. The military's concerns, then, do not stem from an irrational bias or, as the dissent suggests, naked stereotypes, dissent at 708, 712; rather, heterosexuals and homosexuals are treated differently because the means at the military's disposal for dealing with the natural phenomenon of sexual attraction differ for the two. 52 We have said that this is not a criminal case. It is also not a First Amendment case. Steffan was not discharged from the Navy because he expressed sympathy for homosexuals or because he openly opposed the Navy's policy of banning homosexuals, nor has he claimed a First Amendment violation. (To be sure, even the First Amendment must yield at times to the exigencies of military life. Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503, 507-09, 106 S.Ct. 1310, 1313-14, 89 L.Ed.2d 478 (1986); Brown v. Glines, 444 U.S. 348, 354, 100 S.Ct. 594, 599, 62 L.Ed.2d 540 (1980) (quoting Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733, 759, 94 S.Ct. 2547, 2563, 41 L.Ed.2d 439 (1974))). Steffan's thoughts were not put in issue by the Naval Academy. He was not discharged for imagining the demise of the President or even the Superintendent of the Academy. See dissent at 713-15. Thus, most of the cases relied on by the dissent, both the Supreme Court and circuit opinions, are utterly inapposite. 16 53