Federal Court Upholds Ban on Voter Registration in VA Hospitals

Veterans for Peace member Lennox Sweeney just wanted to register voters ahead of the 2004 presidential election. A Vietnam War veteran, Lennox thought that it made sense to take registration materials to the local Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park, CA. He always made it clear that he intended to register voters of any political party.

Republicans had been registering voters in the hospital regularly, but a legal conflict did not arise until several things happened.

Police were called when hospital officials saw Lennox driving his car with peace stickers into the hospital parking lot and when he said he came to register veterans to vote he was arrested. Around the same time Steve Preminger, Santa Clara County Democratic Committee Chair, and Scott Rafferty, a Democratic Party lawyer, entered the hospital to set up registration materials. When VA officials discovered that Rafferty was affiliated with the Democratic Party, they had Preminger and Rafferty removed from the premises, citing a rule that prohibits partisan political activity at VA hospitals.

After four years of legal review, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Veterans Administration policy barring voter registration drives inside its hospitals.

Rafferty said further appeals are possible.
"They are walling our wounded warriors off from participating in political life in the communities of which they are citizens," he said. "They are disenfranchising thousands of wounded veterans around the country."

Despite the federal court ruling, the Veteran Administration's policy is seen by many as being in clear violation of the First Amendment.

Lennox Sweeney, who appeared in court after he was refused the right to register veterans, died on October 13, 2005 of a brain aneurysm while the case was still being reviewed. He was an active member of Veterans for Peace chapter 101 in San Jose, California and was a constant presence at peace vigils at the corner of Stevens Creek and Winchester Boulevards in that city.