Federal Judge Blocks "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Military Policy on Homosexuals

(USA Today) A federal judge Tuesday ordered an immediate end to enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on homosexuals serving openly in the armed fources.  What happens next, however, is unclear.  Neither the Pentagon nor the Justice Department, which has 60 days to appeal, would comment.  Although President Obama says he opposes the 1993 law that set the military's policy on homosexuals, he has ordered the Pentagon to study the effect a repeal would have on the armed forces, and the results of that study aren't due until December.  The White House claims that Congress, not the courts, needs to repeal the law.  It's hard for me to believe Obama really believes that.  I believe Obama would like to see that law repealed regardless of the method used.  If the courts don't overturn the law, President Obama will probably sometime sign an executive order ending "don't ask, don't tell."  He promised homosexuals rights that he'll repeal that law.  I believe sometime in his presidency it will be repealed.  If not now, it won't be too far in the distant future.  This particular law that was written as a compromise in 1993 states that homosexual servicemembers aren't to reveal their "sexual orientation", and it requires their superiors not to ask unless they believe the law is being broken. 

Last year, according to Bloomberg News, the military discharged 259 men and 169 women under the law.  Nicholson's group says 14,000 servicemembers have been discharged under the policy since it took effect.  "The president will continue to work....to change the law that he believes is fundamentally unfair," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.  Yale law professor William Eskridge said that with her ruling, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips "is stepping in to break a deadlock that the political process was unable to resolve.  The ball is in the Department of Justice's court now."  Phillips, in Riverside, California, ruled that enforcement of the law she had previously declared unconstitutional must be halted immediately because it "irreparably injures servicemembers by infringing their fundamental rights."  She said the policy violates a host of rights: due process, freedom of speech and the right to petition the government for rederess. 

Conservative groups such as the Family Research Council, denounced the ruling.  Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, accused Phillips of "using the military to advance a liberal social agenda.  At the Justice Department, spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler declined to comment because officials are reviewing the ruling.  Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith also declined to comment because the ruling had just been issued.  This case was brought in 2004 by the gay-rights group Log Cabin Republicans.  Dan Woods, a lawyer for the group, said Phillips' ruling "reaffirms the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians in the military who are fighting and dying for our country." 

Some people have wondered will the Justice Department make an appeal.  Eric Holder, the Attorney General, heads the Justice Department.  Since Holder's a part of the Obama administration, I would think they would be in favor of the Court's ruling.  Congress isn't going to vote to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" before the November 2nd election.  I predict that Congress won't have to vote on this issue.  They'll probably allow the court to settle this issue.  With the court system becoming more and more alienated from the American public at-large, it's making our legislative branch (Congress) irrelevant.  The court system is becoming the "new tyranny" in America.