Staff Sgt. Cameron Beck, his wife, Kari, and their son Cole pose for a family photo in 2020 at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Beck was struck and killed April 15, 2021, while riding his motorcycle on base, and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Kari Beck against the federal government was recently denied review by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Kari Beck)

The U.S. Supreme Court will not review a wrongful death claim brought by the widow of an airman killed while riding his motorcycle home for lunch on a Missouri military base.

Kari Beck’s wrongful death lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act did not attain the support of four justices, the minimum number required by the court to take up a case. The opinion announcing rejection of the case was issued Monday.

The attempt was the latest challenge to a controversial legal interpretation known as the Feres doctrine, which holds that the U.S. government is not liable under the act for service members’ injuries that “arise out of or are in the course of activity incident to service.”

Beck’s husband, Staff Sgt. Cameron Beck, 29, was killed in 2021 less than a mile from his home on Whiteman Air Base while heading there for lunch with his wife and their young son.

He was fatally struck by Blanca Mitchell, a civilian employee who was driving a government-issued van. Court documents said Mitchell had been distracted by her cellphone, and she later pleaded guilty to criminal negligence.

Staff Sgt. Cameron Beck was struck and killed by a government civilian April 15, 2021, while riding his motorcycle on Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided not to take up a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his widow that challenged a 75-year-old rule barring military personnel from suing the government for service-related harm. ( Kari Beck)

The scene of a memorial service on April 22, 2021, for Staff Sgt. Cameron Beck at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. the 29-year-old airman was killed while killed while riding his motorcycle to his on-base home, where his wife and young son were waiting to have lunch with him. (Kari Beck)

Lower courts had rejected Beck’s suit on the grounds that her husband was in uniform and on base when he was killed, citing the Supreme Court’s 1950 Feres v. United States.

“I am incredibly heartbroken for all of the military members and their families that have been and will continue to be hurt by the Feres doctrine,” Beck said Wednesday.

The high court typically makes decisions on requests for review behind closed doors, often without explanation or indication of who voted for or against.

But in this instance, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, a longtime critic of the Feres doctrine, and liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined in decrying the effect of the doctrine on military families, even though they disagreed on the applicability of Beck’s request for review.

The court “did not need to overrule Feres to get this case right” because Beck was “not killed incident to military service at all,” Thomas wrote in his dissent, noting that the military exception in the Federal Torts Claims Act applies only to combatant activities in wartime.

“It is inconceivable that driving home for lunch with one’s family while off duty can be characterized as a wartime combatant activity,” Thomas wrote.

Kari Beck said Wednesday that she agrees with Thomas’ opinion that the courts “made this mess and they should have taken the opportunity to fix it so that it doesn’t continue to happen, because it will.”

Staff Sgt. Cameron Beck's widow, Kari Beck, and the couple's son Cole at the 509th Communication Squadron’s bench dedication on April 15, 2022, exactly a year after the airman's death in a crash at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a wrongful death lawsuit Kari Beck filed against the federal government. (Kari Beck)

Sotomayor’s opinion expressed support for the decision to deny review of Beck’s case, but she was critical of the Feres doctrine.

It has harmed military families in “circumstances far removed from the expected risks of military service,” she wrote.

The effect of it has been to deny compensation even when the wrongful actions “occur on U.S. soil, bear little relation to the military itself, and just as easily could have befallen any American civilian,” Sotomayor wrote.

The doctrine has prevented active-duty military personnel from suing the federal government for wrongful injury or death related to their service, in cases ranging from medical malpractice to sexual assault.

Sotomayor noted that Congress exercises primary authority over statutory questions and can alter the Feres doctrine if it deems necessary.

Beck’s attorney, Nathan Mammen, hopes that’s exactly what happens.

“We are disappointed that the court chose not to review a legal doctrine that nearly everyone agrees is wrong and unjust and that hurts service members,” Mammen said. “It is time for Congress to act to fix the law to protect men and woman in uniform. Unless and until Congress acts, the harm to service members will regrettably continue.”