Supreme Court Denies Petition to Lift DADT
The Supreme Court on Friday denied a petition to lift the "don't ask, don't tell" policy as the issue is being reviewed by a federal appeals court.
Earlier this month, Log Cabin Republicans urged the high court to reinstate an injunction against DADT, which bars from gays serving openly in the military. A federal judge had placed an injunction that blocked the Pentagon from enforcing the policy but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit allowed the ban to remain in place pending litigation.
R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said in a statement Friday that his group is "disappointed" over the court's ruling but is "not surprised."
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Cooper said the group would continue working to secure more votes in Congress for a legislative repeal of the ban.
Attorney Dan Woods, who is representing Log Cabin Republicans, said such a legislative repeal is unlikely. He said the next step will be to ask the appeals court to expedite the government's appeal.
"With the likelihood of Congress repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' fading with each passing day, judicial relief continues to be perhaps the most viable avenue for ending this unconstitutional policy," Woods stated.
Meanwhile, the Family Research Council has called for the Department of Defense to publicly disavow and formally investigate leaks to the media over a Pentagon study that reports on the issue of homosexuals in the military.
On Thursday, a Washington Post story cited anonymous Pentagon sources who claimed the upcoming December 1 report "concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts."
FRC president Tony Perkins said the leaks gravely undermine the work of the Comprehensive Review Working Group, formed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to review DADT and the impact of its repeal.
"I urge Secretary Gates to have the DOD Inspector General launch an immediate investigation into the source of these leaks, which have seriously damaged the credibility of the CRWG process," said Perkins in a statement Thursday.
Perkins added that the FRC remains critical of the study because it fails to ask whether a repeal of DADT would be in the best interest of armed forces rather than just reviewing how to implement a repeal of the policy.
"The surveys of service members and their spouses which were conducted as part of this process shared the same flaw, since they never asked, 'Do you believe the current law should be overturned?" commented Perkins.
The Supreme Court's order on Friday reads: "The application to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on November 1, 2010, presented to Justice (Anthony) Kennedy and by him referred to the Court is denied."
The document noted that Justice Elena Kagan, who served as the administration's chief Supreme Court lawyer before she was appointed to the bench, took no part in the application.
Arguments are due to the San Francisco-based appeals court in February.
The case is Log Cabin Republicans v. United States.
