{"id":11150,"date":"2010-09-09T20:26:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T03:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=11150"},"modified":"2010-09-09T20:26:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T03:26:20","slug":"judge-rules-dont-ask-dont-tell-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=11150","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rules "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Crossposted on “TADA.” Defenses of DADT should go on “TADA,” not on “Alas.”]<\/em><\/p>\n

A federal judge in Riverside declared the U.S. military\u2019s ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional Thursday, saying the \u201cdon’t ask, don’t tell\u201d policy violates the 1st Amendment rights of lesbians and gay men.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips said the policy banning gays did not preserve military readiness, contrary to what many supporters have argued, saying evidence shows that the policy in fact had a \u201cdirect and deleterious effect\u2019\u2019 on the military.<\/p>\n

Phillips issued an injunction barring the government from enforcing the policy. However, the U.S. Department of Justice, which defended \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d during a two-week trial in Riverside, will have an opportunity to appeal that decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

AmericaBlog has more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Major congratulations are due the Log Cabin Republicans, who started this lawsuit years ago. Today, at least, I say that right wing queers rock!<\/p>\n

Next question: Will the Obama Administration appeal? (Probably, but wouldn’t it be great if they didn’t?)<\/p>\n

ETA: From Wonk Room’s post<\/a>, a quote from the ruling:<\/p>\n

Thus, the evidence at trial demonstrated that the Act does not further significantly the Government\u2019s important interests in military readiness or unit cohesion, nor is it necessary to further those interests. Defendants\u2019 discharge of homosexual servicemembers pursuant to the Act not only has declined precipitously since the United States began combat in Afghanistan in 2001, but Defendants also delay individual enforcement of the Act while a servicemember is deployed in a combat zone. If the presence of a homosexual soldier in the Armed Forces were a threat to military readiness or unit cohesion, it surely follows that in times of war it would be more urgent, not less, to discharge him or her, and to do so with dispatch. The abrupt and marked decline \u2013 50% from 2001 to 2002 and steadily thereafter \u2013 in Defendants\u2019 enforcement of the Act following the onset of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Defendants\u2019 practice of delaying investigation and discharge until after combat deployment, demonstrate that the Act is not necessary to further the Government\u2019s interest in military readiness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And from Wonk Room’s summary of the ruling:<\/p>\n

DADT \u201cinfringes on the fundamental rights of United States servicemembers in many ways,\u201d the ruling continues. \u201cThe Act denies homosexuals serving in the Armed Forces the right to enjoy \u2018intimate conduct\u2019 in their personal relationships. The Act denies them the right to speak about their loved ones while serving their country in uniform; it punishes them with discharge for writing a personal letter, in a foreign language, to a person of the same sex with whom they shared an intimate relationship before entering military service; it discharges them for including information in a personal communication from which an unauthorized reader might discern their homosexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the first amendment claim, Phillips found that \u201cthe sweeping reach of the restrictions on speech in the Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell Act is far broader than is reasonably necessary to protect the substantial government interest at stake here. \u201d \u201cThe Act does not prohibit servicemembers from discussing their sexuality in general, nor does it prohibit all servicemembers from disclosing their sexual orientation,\u201d Phillips wrote. \u201cHeterosexual members are free to state their sexual orientation, \u2018or words to that effect,\u2019 while gay and lesbian members of the military are not. Thus, on its face, the Act discriminates based on the content of the speech being regulated. It distinguishes between speech regarding sexual orientation, and inevitably, family relationships and daily activities, by and about gay and lesbian servicemembers, which is banned, and speech on those subjects by and about heterosexual servicemembers, which is permitted.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Damn. I’ve never been so happy for the military before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Crossposted on “TADA.” Defenses of DADT should go on “TADA,” not on “Alas.”] A federal judge in Riverside declared the U.S. military\u2019s ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional Thursday, saying the \u201cdon’t ask, don’t tell\u201d policy violates the 1st … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,39,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crossposted-on-tada","category-in-the-news","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}