Oh no! (for now)

Read the Opinion, here
And now some disappointing news, friends, though accompanied by a little ray of hope.

Judge Urbina has granted the SSS's motion to dismiss, though has done so without prejudice. So what does that mean? Though this claim is dismissed for now, he has invited us to revise our claim and re-submit it, recognizing that the issues that he had with the previous claim may have been more semantic than substantial.

Since the filing of the claim back in August 2009, the discussion between ourselves and the SSS veered away from the salient issue of the claim- if they were going to recognize a Conscientious Objection claim or not- to whether or not they already were doing so.

They underscored a loophole in that they do keep little tiny photos of draftcards for eighty years after they receive them, where we had assumed they kept no record. Thus, they said, look, if you scribbled, "I'm a CO" in the margin of your draft card, we would record it, so what's the big deal? (This discussion can be seen in greater detail in the motion to dismiss and responses, attached to the previous post.)

Well, here's the deal. We replied that simple documentation wasn't what we meant by "official recognition" of a claim. According to the system, I would be just as ready to be drafted into the army as anyone else, and that is the point- my entire contention is that I am religiously unable to sign up to be considered ready for combat.

But, for now, we're back to square one. Thanks for your continuing support in this long and drawn-out process, and please, don't stop dreaming ;)

Hope you're well,
Toby