Don't Ask Don't Tell

Gov't Files To Suspend 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Appeal

Ryan J. Reilly | December 31, 2010, 10:03AM

A crowd protests "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" outside the White House

The Justice Department asked a federal judge this week to suspend an appeal of the Log Cabin Republicans' federal lawsuit against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which was recently repealed by Congress.

Justice Department attorneys argued that the court should "suspend the briefing schedule and hold the case in abeyance to allow that process to continue to completion."

A federal judge had ruled in September that DADT was unconstitutional and issued an injunction banning enforcement of the law, a ruling DOJ appealed.

President Obama signed the repeal into law earlier this month, and has said he expects repeal to be implemented in a matter of months, not years.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Eyes On The Clock For DADT Repeal Advocates After Pentagon Report

Rachel Slajda | December 1, 2010, 10:45AM

A crowd protests "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" outside the White House

The release of the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell review yesterday brought a collective sigh of relief from the gay advocacy and progressive organizations lobbying for the policy's repeal. Now, they say, they can zero in on the senators who told them this summer that they couldn't vote for repeal until the review was done.

"It's probably one of the best tools repeal advocates can us in the Senate lame duck session," Aubrey Sarvis, the head of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said yesterday.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Log Cabin Republicans Ask Supreme Court To Block DADT Enforcement

Rachel Slajda | November 5, 2010, 3:41PM

The Log Cabin Republicans, which is fighting Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the court system, today asked the Supreme Court to block an appeals court's decision to allow the military to enforce the policy.

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the military could continue enforcing DADT while the federal government appeals a lower court's ruling that the policy is unconstitutional. The lower court had issued an injunction ordering the military to immediately stop enforcement.

The Log Cabin Republicans, which brought the original lawsuit, is now asking the Supreme Court to vacate the appeals court's stay of the lower court's injunction. In other words, they are trying again to end the enforcement of DADT immediately.

Don't Ask Don't Tell

To Repeal DADT, Gay GOP Group Zeroes In On Five Senators

Rachel Slajda | November 3, 2010, 9:21AM

U.S. Marines on patrol in the Helmand province of Afghanistan

In a perhaps unlikely twist in the battle to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it's a group of Republicans who may make the difference on whether the policy is axed this year.

The Log Cabin Republicans, an organization for gay Republicans, brought the lawsuit that resulted in DADT being ruled unconstitutional last September -- even though the government has been successful in staying the court's ruling pending appeal.

And it's the group that President Obama implored to deliver Republican votes when the Senate takes up repeal in the lame-duck session. But he's preaching, as Log Cabins executive director Clarke Cooper tells TPM, to the gay Republican choir.

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