The Department of Justice is urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to put its decision from last week on hold, so as to keep "don't ask, don't tell" enforceable until the law is officially repealed by President Barack Obama and key military leaders.
The court last week ordered the ban on openly gay service members to be lifted in all U.S. military operations around the world. R. Clarke Cooper, the Log Cabin Republicans' executive director and an Army combat veteran, called the government's move "troubling" in a statement Thursday. The organization is the plaintiff in this case, which was originally filed in 2004 and refiled in 2006. The case went to trial in U.S. District Court in Riverside, Calif., in 2010.
Cooper added, "All this does is further confuse the situation for our men and women in uniform. Let me be clear — the president is asking the court for the power to continue threatening service members with investigation and discharge, and the right to turn away qualified Americans from military service for no reason other than their sexual orientation."
Dan Woods, the attorney representing the Log Cabin Republicans in this case, said the motion has no other purpose other than to request "that the military be permitted to investigate and discharge service members, and block new enlistments, based solely on those individuals' sexuality." Otherwise, he said, the move is "inexplicable."
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