You may have thought that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had been repealed by Congress. Which is true, but the effect of the repeal was delayed. You may have thought that in the case of Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, it had been found unconstitutional. Which is true, but the injunction against its enforcement stayed pending time to “train” members of the military in how to not discriminate against gays. Well, that’s over now. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit lifted the stay and the injunction against enforcing this unconstitutional and discriminatory law takes effect today. Final arguments before the Ninth Circuit are scheduled for August 29 and should be a quick and non-controversial affair. The case is moot given the statutory repeal and the nearly year’s worth of time for the don’t-discriminate-against-gays training to have taken place.
Lots of people I know have served in the military alongside people they knew or believed to be gay and reported no particular problem. The question was always, “Well, are they good soldiers or not?” Which is as it should be. The year’s worth of “training” always seemed a bit silly to me, but that’s what happened.
The interesting thing in the Ninth Circuit’s order in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States is that you can see several threads of developing law coming together — Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, Perry v. Brown, statutory repeal, decisions of the White House in its directives to the Justice Department. What is emerging is the elevation of sexual preference to a “suspect class” for purposes of the Equal Protection Clause. We’re not there yet and only the Supreme Court can really do that. But the foundation is there at this point. Log Cabin Republicans will soon be a closed file, so it’s likely that Perry v. Brown will be the case in which that happens. It’s rather exciting to see these threads of impact litigation, legislative activity, and political pressure come together to do something good.
And it’s also a demonstration of how political and legal pressure work in concert to change the law. As with same-sex marriage and as will likely start happening soon with employment discrimination, litigation is an effective way to demonstrate the illogic and injustice of the law on the books and when coordinated with political efforts to remedy that issue, the law changes and the public accepts it.
Incidentally, for those who think that everything the courts do is good, note that it was a court which ordered a stay on the law that Congress passed repealing DADT.
How does that make what the courts did bad?
And I’m certainly not saying that everything the courts do is good; I doubt anyone would. Courts — from SCOTUS down to your municipal traffic courts — sometimes blow the calls they are asked to make.
DADT was logical; dumping it is logical. Whatever. The state has no compelling interest either way.
Yes, the courts and the gov’t can shove all sorts of stuff down our throats. Mostly, we put up with it. It’s a good country as countries go.
Note for posterity — I deleted a spam post here that made it through the filters. No spam allowed, even if it seems like relevant spam.
Log Cabin is getting much credit deservedly for their hard work. FYI – we are providing a supportive place for gay servicemen and women to friend, share and network in a post DADT era.
Hi, Out Military. I edited your post before because it loooks like spam. Your new post looks like spam, too, but there is (perhaps only by coincidence) a remark of at least minimal intellectual worth relevant to the original post. So instead, I’ve edited your comment to remove the references to your own website. I’ve left your e-mail contact intact in the event people are interested in contacting you for some reason (although warning to other readers, this still looks more likely to be spam than not to me). In the future, you can avoid this by refraining from the overt reference to your own site. A response from you that indicates you have read and agree to abide by the League of Ordinary Gentlemen’s commenting policy, and does not contain spam, will get you on my “approved commenters” list.
Will the Log Cabin Republicans be less radioactive in the 2012 race than they’ve been up until now?
I’m confused by Duck’s comments: I thought the stay was on enforcing the district court decision finding DADT unconstitutional, pending repeal by Congress, not “staying” the Congressional action that repealed DADT.
Sorry.. trollin’ around, and I found your site.