D.A.D.T. is D.E.A.D. (for now)
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Goes Silent.
(AP) A federal judge issued a worldwide injunction Tuesday stopping enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, ending the military’s 17-year-old ban on openly gay troops.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips’ landmark ruling was widely cheered by gay rights organizations that credited her with getting accomplished what President Obama and Washington politics could not.
“This order from Judge Phillips is another historic and courageous step in the right direction, a step that Congress has been noticeably slow in taking,” said Alexander Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United and the sole named veteran plaintiff in the case along with the Log Cabin Republicans. Servicemembers United is the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans.
Questions, As Always, Remain and Remain.
The possibility of appeal of Log Cabin Republicans v. U.S. partially overshadows the future of the court order since DOJ has 60 days to decide whether to appeal. Already, Attorney General Eric Holder has a letter from 21 senators requesting that DOJ walk off the field and thus let the injunction stand. As for those who are disgruntled with the injunction, the LA Times reported that “Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, called on the administration to immediately appeal . . . Otherwise, he said, it would ‘only further the desire of voters to change Congress’ out of anger at ‘activist judges and arrogant politicians.'” In any event, with the midterm elections a little more than two weeks away, it will be very interesting to see how the court’s ruling is “played” by the contenders.
In addition, an issue related to the scope of the injunction arose quickly as well. The L.A. Times reported that Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, observed,
“A federal judge always has the power to declare a law unconstitutional,” but the Log Cabin Republican case raised an “interesting question [that] concerns a nationwide injunction. On the one hand, I think, [the court] is on strong ground in doing so. On the other hand, one district judge doesn’t have the authority to bind judges in other districts or circuits. They can decide for themselves. The key question is whether the Obama administration will appeal.”
How About We All Think Of It This Way?
Florida’s Chan Lee, political cartoonist extraordinaire, enlightens best:
