amy31416
02-25-2011, 07:39 PM
Seriously...wtf is going on? One minute DADT is struck down, then it's upheld, DOMA is legit, and gays are akin to pedophiles and practitioners of bestiality, then the administration requests that it not be defended.
Absolutely zero consistency. I simply don't get it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/obama-administration-uphold-dont-ask-dont-tell_n_828537.html
SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration may have concluded that laws targeting gay Americans are presumably unconstitutional, but it still asked a federal appeals court Friday to refrain for now from striking down the ban on gays serving openly in the military, court documents state.
Justice Department lawyers asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to give the Pentagon time to train troops and take other steps Congress outlined in December, when it cleared the way for the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to be repealed.
The request was made in the government's opening brief challenging a Southern California trial judge who in September declared the "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional.
"This case is thus now in a different posture," Assistant Attorney General Tony West wrote for the administration. "That statute is now undergoing a repeal process subject to a more recent law duly enacted by Congress and signed by the President."
The relevant question now before the 9th Circuit, West maintained, is not whether "don't ask, don't tell" is unconstitutional, but whether it was unconstitutional for Congress to leave the policy in effect while the Pentagon works toward its repeal.
The brief was submitted in a long-running case brought by Lob Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group that argued that forcing gay service members to keep their sexual orientations secret if they did not want to be discharged violated their First Amendment rights, among others.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips agreed and issued a worldwide injunction barring enforcement of "don't ask, don't tell." The appeals court subsequently imposed a stay preventing Phillips' order from taking effect.
More at link.
Absolutely zero consistency. I simply don't get it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/obama-administration-uphold-dont-ask-dont-tell_n_828537.html
SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration may have concluded that laws targeting gay Americans are presumably unconstitutional, but it still asked a federal appeals court Friday to refrain for now from striking down the ban on gays serving openly in the military, court documents state.
Justice Department lawyers asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to give the Pentagon time to train troops and take other steps Congress outlined in December, when it cleared the way for the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to be repealed.
The request was made in the government's opening brief challenging a Southern California trial judge who in September declared the "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional.
"This case is thus now in a different posture," Assistant Attorney General Tony West wrote for the administration. "That statute is now undergoing a repeal process subject to a more recent law duly enacted by Congress and signed by the President."
The relevant question now before the 9th Circuit, West maintained, is not whether "don't ask, don't tell" is unconstitutional, but whether it was unconstitutional for Congress to leave the policy in effect while the Pentagon works toward its repeal.
The brief was submitted in a long-running case brought by Lob Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group that argued that forcing gay service members to keep their sexual orientations secret if they did not want to be discharged violated their First Amendment rights, among others.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips agreed and issued a worldwide injunction barring enforcement of "don't ask, don't tell." The appeals court subsequently imposed a stay preventing Phillips' order from taking effect.
More at link.