A three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit turned down an appeal by 12 female former sailors and Marines, who claim that they were raped, sexually assaulted or harassed while on active duty. The judges rejected the women’s claim that top Pentagon leadership, including former defense and Navy secretaries and chiefs of staff of the Navy and Marine Corps, fostered a climate that permitted such abuse. “The Supreme Court has held that military officials are not subject to personal liability under the Constitution for their management decisions, including the choices they make about the discipline, supervision, and control of service members,” Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote in the court’s July 18 opinion. Ruling in the women’s favor, therefore, would be tantamount to “judicial intrusion,” Griffith wrote. Despite the ruling, the judges had harsh words for the armed services’ seemingly lackadaisical attitude toward what they regarded as very serious crimes. “We do not take lightly the severity of [the women’s] suffering or the harm done by sexual assault and retaliation in our military,” Griffith wrote. “But the existence of grievous wrongs does not free the judiciary to authorize any and all suits that might seem just.” Congress would have to change existing laws in order for such lawsuits against the military to move forward, he wrote.