Gauntlet thrown down…
Today Judge Phillips ruled against the Department of Justice by denying its request for a stay of injunction in Log Cabin Republicans vs United States of America. Below please find statements from the Log Cabin Republicans and White & Case on the ruling. The order denying the stay as well as the transcript from yesterday’s hearing are both attached.
Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans
“Judge Phillips is right to stand with servicemembers by rejecting President Obama’s request to continue this discriminatory policy,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans. “It is vital that as a nation we uphold the fundamental constitutional rights of all soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen. As this past week has shown, our military is well-equipped to adapt to open service, and eager to get on with the work of defending our freedom. As Commander in Chief, the president should drop his defense of a policy which he knows undermines military readiness and threatens national security. The president has said that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end on his watch, but is currently standing in the way of its demise. Log Cabin Republicans will continue to fight this policy no matter how many obstacles he puts in the way.”Dan Woods, White & Case
“We applaud Judge Phillips’s ruling denying the government’s request for a stay of injunction, as it brings us one step closer toward ending once and for all this unconstitutional policy that President Obama and Congress seem incapable or unwilling to end themselves,” said Dan Woods, White & Case partner who is representing Log Cabin Republicans in Log Cabin Republicans vs United States of America. “Meanwhile, homosexual servicemembers are fighting and dying today in two wars for their fellow Americans’ constitutional rights, while their own constitutional rights are being held hostage to an uncertain bureaucratic process that seems more interested in beancounting the trouble they would be put to from modifying their training materials than in protecting these servicemembers’ civil rights.”
SLDN:
Statement by Army veteran and SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis:
“By the judge keeping the injunction in place, lesbian and gay service members are protected another day, but the uncertainty has not gone away. The Department of Justice will immediately ask the 9th Circuit to stay the injunction. We’re talking about the careers of patriots, people who are on the frontlines serving our country – some of whom are highly decorated – and the court needs to keep the injunction in place. As the DOJ fights to keep this unconstitutional and oppressive law, we are monitoring active-duty clients’ cases and fielding calls every day to our hotline. During this interim period of uncertainty, service members must not come out. Our service members need finality. Given the uncertainty in the courts, we urge the Senate to act swiftly next month on repeal when they return to Washington.”
Servicemembers United:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Servicemembers United, the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans, issued the following statement today in response to District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips’ ruling denying the government’s request to stay her injunction:
“Given that seven days have passed since enforcement of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy was halted, those seeking to reinstate the policy have been proven flat wrong in their predictions of ‘enormous consequences.’ Judge Phillips recognized this contradiction in the Justice Department’s arguments and once again refused to abdicate her duty to reach an objective conclusion based on the evidence before her,” said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and the sole named veteran plaintiff in the case along with the Log Cabin Republicans. “Once again, we call on President Obama to stop defending the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy in court and we reiterate that it is the President, not the Attorney General, who has the final word on this decision.”
HRC:
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese issued the following statement:
“Judge Phillips once again did the right thing for our national security. We call on the administration not to appeal her decision. DADT is an unconscionable law that forces brave lesbian and gay Americans to serve in silence and has forced 14,000 patriotic Americans out of the military. The law is detrimental, not only to our national security, but also to the core American value of fairness.”
HRC urges all fair-minded Americans to sign an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, calling on him not to defend DADT at:https://secure3.convio.net/hrc/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=940
Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:
“Judge Phillips again rejected the government’s bunk that it’s necessary this discriminatory policy remain in effect any longer. She and the overwhelming majority of Americans have rightly concluded it’s time to make ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ a policy of the past. Our elected officials have diddled around and played the delay game as the careers of thousands of courageous, patriotic service members have been destroyed. Phillips said enough is enough, and we couldn’t agree more.”
Prop 8 Trial Tracker is also following.
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