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A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel — Judges Alex Kozinski, Kim Wardlaw and Richard Paez — issued a ruling today lifting the stay of Judge Virginia Phillips’ judgment that stopped the worldwide enforcement of Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell.
Per Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly:
In an order issued by a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips’s judgment halting the worldwide enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a result of her decision in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States has been put back in effect.
DADT cannot be enforced, per the order, unless the government gets a stay of the order from either the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Supreme Court pending an appeal of today’s decision.
From Servicemembers United, via email:
WASHINGTON, DC – Servicemembers United, the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans, today enthusiastically applauded the order issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifting its own stay of a lower court’s injunction barring enforcement of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. This move once again renders “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” unenforceable by the Pentagon.
“With the wait for certification dragging out beyond a reasonable time frame, the Court has once again stepped in to require the Pentagon to stop enforcing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and this time it very well may be for good,” said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and the sole veteran plaintiff on the case. “I am proud to have worked personally worked with Log Cabin on this case for more than five years now and to have represented the gay military community as the sole named veteran on this lawsuit. Despite the criticisms and years of waiting, this case has yet again successfully eviscerated this outdated, harmful, and discriminatory law.”
From Aubrey Sarvis, Executive Director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, via email:
(Washington, DC) Army Veteran and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis issued the following statement on the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today to reinstate the injunction on enforcement of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) law in the Log Cabin Republicans vs. United States case.
“Today’s decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is most welcomed. It’s the hope of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network that this favorable ruling will not be challenged by the Defense Department. In fact, this whole matter could have been avoided had we had certification back in the spring. It’s time to get on with that important certification, end the DADT confusion for all service members, and put a final end to this misguided policy.”
10 Comments
Too much court talk.
Do I have this right:
1) Bad DADT.
2) Enforcement of it was ruled bad. Ergo, enforcement was stopped.
3) Enforcement of it was reinstated?
4) New ruling bars enforcement once again?
I hate legalese . . . ;-)
Thanks for the update, I look forward to what it means in simple terms.
Rcc’d, of course!
UPDATE from The Advocate:
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. military cannot enforce its ban on openly gay service members.
The panel said “don’t ask, don’t tell” must be immediately lifted because of the Obama administration’s directive deeming laws like the Defense of Marriage Act, to be unconstitutional. The court cited the recent Department of Justice brief on Golinski v. U.S. Office of Pers. Mgmt., in which the government said, “gay and lesbian individuals have suffered a long and significant history of purposeful discrimination”
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/07/06/Court_Orders_End_to_DADT/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AdvocatecomDailyNews+%28Advocate.com+Daily+News%29&utm_content=Twitter
See, I told you Gosinski was a game changer.
Should be noted that Kosinski, and trust me this play has Alex written all over it, accelerated the oral argument on the merits to August 29. And I should think their decision will be already drafted when they hear OA and will be issued very fast.
Here is another interesting thought. I don’t think the government will actually appeal this order, although they absolutely would have in the past. But hard to see them doing it now. And that is almost a shame, because an emergency appeal would flow through Tony Kennedy and it would give a great read of where Kennedy really stands (and I remain convinced he will, when the time comes, find gay discrimination not only unconstitutional, but unconstitutional because they are a protected suspect class under Equal Protection).
Judge Phillips ruled DADT unconstitutional and banned its enforcement worldwide. The government immediately appealed her ruling, and asked for a stay of her ruling until the appeal was settled. The Appeals Court provided that stay, and then (today) lifted the stay. So enforcement of DADT is back to where it was under Judge Phillips initial ruling: no more DADT anywhere in the world. It’s unconstitutional, again, although the appeal on the actual question is still pending.
Now, DoD needs to end its absurd appeal of this ruling.
Don’t you think the government will appeal this on the technical merits, if only to ensure that a District Court judge can’t issue rulings that apply to the entire federal government, especially the Defense Department, worldwide? That, as I recall, was what bothered you most about her ruling, that it was so sweeping in scope. I would think the government would want to nip that in the bud, even if their appeal on the merits no longer applied.
Hope that helps; I didn’t actually understand your summary so I tried to bridge the lawyer talk with some layman explanation.
Hurray!
But to all you servicemembers out there, wait a bit and see if there is further litgation.
You’ve waited this long a few more week or months won’t hurt and if you come out prematurely and there is another about face, well, it would suck.
Keep safe.
Yes, absolutely, here’s the information from SLDN:
STILL AT RISK: Despite the President signing the bill authorizing repeal of DADT, it is still unsafe for service members to come out until 60 days after certification by President Obama, Secretary Gates, and Admiral Mullen. Click here to read our warning to service members.
SLDN FREE HOTLINE: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender service members with questions are urged to contact the SLDN hotline to speak with a staff attorney: 202-328-3244 x100.
No, yer reply was GREAT!
Thanks . . . *G*
Here’s An Article That Simplifies It, WITH Some Legalese.
I don’t know. I am still troubled by that, but they did not brief it all that well to start with. So, I have no idea. As I said, I am half inclined to believe they do not appeal. Part of me would like them to to see what Kennedy would do; most of me just wants this shit done with. Will be interesting to see what happens.