Friday, July 15, 2011

Obama's DoJ Asks Judge to Lift Stay on DADT

The Justice Department filed an injunction Wednesday afternoon in the case of Log Cabin Republicans vs. USA, the federal court challenge to DADT.

Despite the fact that the president and Attorney General Eric Holder have stated that gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans Americans have been discriminated against at every level of society, that they consider us a suspect class of people and that cases of discrimination deserve heightened scrutiny, they are fighting against the court ordered moratorium on discharges and the enlistment of openly gay and lesbian recruits, pending certification of repeal.

Bottom line: They are fighting to maintain a policy that they are fighting to repeal.

The Washington Blade reported last night:
Late last year, in the Log Cabin Republicans v. USA case, Judge Virginia Phillips found the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law and policy unconstitutional, and ordered the military to cease enforcing the law by placing an injunction on the policy. The 9th Cir. later placed a stay on the injunction as the Obama Department of Justice continued to appeal the case. Last week the 9th Cir. agreed with Log Cabin lawyers from the law firm White & Case that there was no need to continue enforcing the DADT policy and that the injunction on the policy should be put back in place.
The move comes as the Pentagon moves into the final stages of certifying the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask,’ passed in December and signed into law. Once the Pentagon, the Defense Secretary and President certify that the military is ready to implement repeal, the last steps in the process of ending the law will follow a 60 day Congressional review period.
“This latest maneuver by the President continues a pattern of doublespeak that all Americans should find troubling. All this does is further confuse the situation for our men and women in uniform,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director, in a statement. “Let me be clear – the president is asking the court for the power to continue threatening servicemembers with investigation and discharge, and the right to turn away qualified Americans from military service for no reason other than their sexual orientation. Even if the administration never uses that power, it is still wrong, and the Ninth Circuit was clear that there is no justification for continuing the violation of servicemembers’ constitutional rights. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is an offense to American values that should have been gone long ago. It is shameful that a president who has taken credit for opposing the policy is taking extreme measures to keep it on life support.”
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1 comment:

  1. Our President seems to think we do not have a choice as to who to vote for come the next election. He seems to think that we'll even help him again this time around with his door to door campaigning, phone banks etc etc. I believe what we have acheived since you have been in office re. LGBT equality has been the direct result of OUR tireless efforts...not yours. You sit on your picket fence(ouch)and think you are keeping us on your side. WE are not happy with your neutrality, or even worse...your flip flopping like a fish out of water.

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