In case you missed it, earlier today, a federal court judge in the ongoing suit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans seeking to overturn the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has enjoined enforcement of the policy. This is the same judge who ruled that the policy violated the Constitutional rights of service members in the case last month.
Will the injunction last? That’s hard to say. The Justice Department has not determined whether they will file an appeal, but given the Obama Administration’s opposition to the policy, it seems unlikely that they will do so. And, even if they do, the 9th Circuit is the most liberal of the Circuit Courts of Appeals. While I won’t presume to assume they will not stay the operation of the injunction, I think a stay is unlikely.
Thanks to bipartisan Congressional action codifying DADT after Clinton’s aborted attempt at ending the bar on gays in the military in the early 90s, DoD is unable, on their own, to end the practice. A repeal measure, which has the support of the Obama Administration, Republican Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, is currently working its way through the Congress.
My feelings on this issue are mixed. While I welcome the repeal of DADT – it’s an unnecessary discriminatory policy that reduces our effective manpower and ends promising careers of good soldiers and sailors for an arbitrary reason – I would prefer that this action be taken in the Congress, rather than in the courts. That being said, the Judge here is, in my opinion, correct on the law – discriminating against gays in the Armed Forces violates their 1st amendment right to free speech and their 5th amendment right to due process.
This isn’t a case of judges telling the military what their policy should be. This is a case where a judge has told the military what their policy cannot be – just as they cannot discriminate against blacks, Christians, or women, they can’t discriminate against gays either. That’s why the DADT repeal has support from a majority of both parties, including Republicans. The last polling I saw, from Gallup, had 53% of conservatives, 60% of Republicans, and 70% of Americans overall in support of allowing openly gay service members. In my own experience, I had a colleague in my NROTC unit leave after he was discovered to be gay. This was 1996, so attitudes hadn’t changed very much from the 1992 fight, but I always thought it was unfair. My friend was a good sailor and would have made a good officer and his career was ruined before it even began. In today’s world, where our volunteer military has been stretched to the breaking point, we simply can’t turn away qualified people because of sexual preference.
We don’t live in a perfect world and I recognize that. So while I would prefer a legislative solution to this legislatively created problem, I’ll take what I can get. This is a good first step in ending this policy and I’m glad to see it.
