Court Orders Halt to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Enforcement

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2011 — The 9th Cir­cuit Court of Appeals has ordered the gov­ern­ment to stop enforc­ing the terms of the law that pre­vents open­ly gay ser­vice mem­bers from being in the mil­i­tary.

The Defense Depart­ment will com­ply and is inform­ing com­mands world­wide of the court’s order, Pen­ta­gon spokesman Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan said. 

The court lift­ed a stay put in place Nov. 1. DOD and Jus­tice Depart­ment lawyers are study­ing the ruling. 

The stay was put in place after 9th Cir­cuit Judge Vir­ginia Phillips ruled the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The case went to a three-judge pan­el on the Court of Appeals, which released its rul­ing today. 

Since the court issued the stay in Novem­ber, Con­gress passed and Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma signed repeal of the 1993 law. “In the mean­time, imple­men­ta­tion of the DADT repeal vot­ed by the Con­gress and signed into law by the pres­i­dent last Decem­ber is pro­ceed­ing smooth­ly, is well under way, and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is just weeks away,” Lapan said. 

The repeal act calls for train­ing the force and for the chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the sec­re­tary of defense to cer­ti­fy to the pres­i­dent that the con­di­tions for repeal are met. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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