After federal Judge Virginia Phillips denied the government’s request to continue enforcing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell pending appeal, the Justice Department has made the same request to a higher court.
The government is appealing Phillips’ ruling that DADT is unconstitutional to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Today, it also asked the appeals court to stay the injunction Phillips issued last week, which orders the military to stop enforcing DADT.
In the meantime, the military is accepting openly gay recruits for the first time ever. The Pentagon has, however, told recruiters to warn enlistees that the policy could be reinstated, and has also warned current servicemembers not to come out of the closet just yet.
The DOJ asked the appeals court for a stay to be issued today. In their request, lawyers wrote that the injunction would “short-circuit” the ongoing policy review of DADT and is “an extraordinary and unwarranted intrusion into military affairs.”
The first brief in the appeal is due in January.
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