Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the law that forbids the military from asking service members their sexual orientation, but forcing discharge if one is found to be gay or to have engaged in homosexual activity, has been ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips! Phillips stated that the policy has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the military services, and that she will issue a nationwide halt on the policy. She will write an injunction which the federal government will have a week to respond to.
Obama has repeatedly assured that he would work toward removal of the ban, and earlier this year, the House voted to repeal the policy. The Senate has yet to review it, but today marked another step closer to getting rid of the discriminatory policy! :)
(It's also nice that the judge is from California, after another California judge recently ruled Prop 8 unconstitutional. Making up for California's 2008 election mistake? hehe)
Actually DADT has been ruled unconstitutional before, by federal judges even in the 9th circuit but those were "as applied" challenges to a particular person, as opposed to a facial challenge to the statute which would strike it down for everyone instead of people similarly situated.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that two positive rulings on LGBT rights have come out of California from federal judges. We will see later in the course how rare it is to have a LGBT-supportive federal court ruling. I believe the Judge you are referring to is Phillips (DADT), not Walker (Prop 8).
The 9th Circuit ruled in Witt vs United States Air Force in 2008 that the policy was unconstitutional but there's been no further legal action in the case. (Federal lawsuits often takes several years to be resolved.)
Interesting! I hadn't heard of the previous rulings.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh yeah, oops, got my judges mixed up.