A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily stalled the landmark court decision allowing openly gay recruits to be accepted into the military.
In response to an emergency request from the government, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, issued a one-page order late in the day allowing the Pentagon to continue enforcing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which bars openly gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.
The decision, which returns the law to the status quo before a Federal District Court judge in California prohibited its enforcement, will be in effect while the appeals court considers whether to issue a longer stay, until February, when the Ninth Circuit will hear the full appeal. A decision about the longer stay could occur as early as next week; the Log Cabin Republicans, which brought the legal challenge to the law, were told to prepare briefs on the issues by Monday.
Ninth Circuit Grants Emergency Stay on DADT Ruling
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Indeed, Evan; this is getting more absurd with each passing day. I don’t know what’s worse: that one day, gays and lesbians are welcome in the military and not the next or that our President has become the gay community’s own Benedict Arnold. Frankly, I am embarrassed for the President and now widely-known spineless leadership.
There was a very interesting article in the NY Times today about how the Obama admin should deal with the DADT defense. I wish Valerie Jarret and Obama would read it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/opinion/21dellinger.html?th&emc=th
Daniel, If the lower Court says the law is unconstitutional, I doubt very much the President has to force the issue up to the Supreme Court. He can just obey the ruling and he is fulfilling his obligation to the law. His move is all about politics.
It really is a shame that Obama is so committed to fighting to retain this discriminatory law. He works as hard as he can to derail congressional repeal of the law, and ardently defends the law in court, while saying that he would like to see the law repealed. I do hope that our next president is more committed to equal rights.