Military Women Challenge Combat Exclusion Rule In Lawsuit Against Defense Department

Article here. Excerpt:

'A first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, a captain in the Marine Corps Reserves, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves and a major in the U.S. Air National Guard filed suit Tuesday against the Department of Defense, challenging its rules restricting women in combat under the Fifth Amendment.

The American Civil Liberties Union is representing Marine 1st Lt. Colleen Farrell, Marine Reserves Capt. Zoe Bedell, Army Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt and Air Guard Major Mary Jennings Hegar in the suit, filed Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The four individual plaintiffs have all served in Afghanistan or Iraq, and two are Purple Heart recipients.
...
Joined by the advocacy group Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), they accuse the Defense Department of violating servicewomen's rights to equal protection under the law by maintaining policies collectively known as the combat exclusion rule. Though the Pentagon is reforming the policies directed at servicewomen, the rules still bar women in the U.S. military from specific combat positions -- positions that are available to men.'