Opinion ID: 727261
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: richenberg's discharge

Text: 20 Richenberg entered the Air Force in 1985. After reaching the rank of Captain and serving in the Gulf War, he began training for the Foreign Military Sales program in Saudi Arabia. In April 1993, he requested separation from the Air Force. The Air Force denied this request because his training was nearly complete. Richenberg then informed his commanding officer that he is homosexual, acknowledging that I am forcing you to take actions which may ultimately result in my discharge. The Air Force canceled his Saudi Arabian mission, reassigned him to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and initiated discharge proceedings. 21 After a December 1993 hearing, a Board of Inquiry recommended Richenberg's discharge. The Secretary of the Air Force ordered reconsideration under the new Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. After a second hearing in June 1994, the Board of Inquiry recommended separation with an honorable discharge. An Air Force Legal Review concluded that the Board's findings support discharge for making homosexual statements and failing to rebut the presumption that the respondent has a propensity to engage in homosexual acts. The Air Force Board of Review agreed. On August 28, 1995, the Secretary of the Air Force ordered Richenberg's honorable discharge. 22 Richenberg then commenced this action. The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, rejecting Richenberg's constitutional challenge and concluding that substantial evidence supports the agency's decision. Richenberg v. Perry, 909 F.Supp. 1303 (D.Neb.1995). Following Richenberg's appeal, we declined to enter an injunction preventing discharge during the appeal. Richenberg v. Perry, 73 F.3d 172 (8th Cir.1995). We now consider the merits of that appeal. The Fourth Circuit upheld the policy's constitutionality in Thomasson v. Perry, 80 F.3d 915 (4th Cir.1996) (en banc), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 358, 136 L.Ed.2d 250 (1996). The Second Circuit reversed a district court decision that the rebuttable presumption in § 654(b)(2) is unconstitutional and remanded for consideration of the constitutionality of § 654(b)(1) in Able v. United States, 88 F.3d 1280 (2nd Cir.1996).