I did not say that lying in the past is a license to lie forever! You and I are bound by Jesus’ teachings, the atheist is not, so ultimately, the atheist has no basis for his morals, other than his ‘feelings’. If there is evidence that he has lied in the past, the point is that ANYTHING he says should be suspect; the fact that 99.999999999999% of us have lied on one occasion or another, not withstanding. HE has made his ‘honesty’ in not swearing to God an issue.
Unfortunately, the fact that the USAF dropped the option of someone swearing an oath other than, “...so help me God.” in 2013, is at issue. And yes, because the policy change was so recent, yes, he will likely win. A good lawyer for the USAF however, should be able evidence lies in this joker’s background, impugning his reputation, as noted above. He will likely win this case, but perhaps, his reputation will be shot and he will have to ask the question, “Was the defense of my subjective morals worth the destruction of my reputation?”
His past veracity is never going to come up. It’s irrelevant, unless he can be shown to have lied in a criminal way—i.e., to be an actual perjurer.
The case will be decided on the basis of religious freedom, and his case is airtight, because religious liberty protects his option to be an atheist.