Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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Gotta love a guy who is willing to defend gay rights.
U.S.: Restore military gay ban now : SCOTUSblog
The Obama Administration, direclty challenging the authority of the courts to decide the time to end the militarys dont ask/dont tell policy against gays and lesbians in the services, urged the Ninth Circuit Court on Thursday to put that 18-yer-old ban back into effect and to do so within 24 hours. In the meantime, it asked for a temporary order to restore the ban immediately. The maneuver also appeared to set the stage to go on to the Supreme Court, if the Circuit Court were to balk.
In what government lawyers called an emergency motion, the Administration refused to accept a Circuit Court panels view of what is at stake before that court now, and refused to answer directly a question by that court about whether the government thinks the existing ban is unconstitutional. Framing the questions at stake in its own way, the government in effect accused the Circuit panel of a series of serious legal misunderstandings. The government seldom speaks, in its court filings, with such bluntness.
After having its way in the Ninth Circuit on the issue of ongoing enforcement of the ban, the Administration suddenly was confronted with a direct order by that court to stop enforcing the measure putting an end to any discharges of gays and lesbians, and any investigation of their sexual conduct. Its new legal filings reflected a deep frustration with that development. And the strength of its objections made it seem that it would not leave matters wholly in the hands of the Ninth Circuit as the final tribunal.
The package filed Thursday afternoon with the Circuit Court in San Francisco included three items: a 26-page plea for reconsideration of the Circuit Courts order on July 6 lifting the ban while the Circuit Court reviews it, a declaration under oath by a top Pentagon general arguing why the military not the courts should arrange for the bans actual end, and a letter brief in response to constitutional and legal process questions the Circuit Court had raised on Monday.
U.S.: Restore military gay ban now : SCOTUSblog