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US Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Lawsuit Appeal

The United States Supreme Court has refused to hear arguments concerning Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The decision upholds the refusal of a Boston Federal Appeals court to allow a lawsuit on that issue to move forward. The suit brought by Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II and eleven others was not allowed to go forward, and only Captain Pietrangelo appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court. In the filing before the Supreme Court the administration stated that appeals court’s decision on DADT was “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.”

The Supreme Court took into account a recent ruling out of San Francisco which allowed a lawsuit filed by Major Margaret Witt to go forward. Her lawsuit is still pending, and all that their ruling did was allow the lawsuit to go forward under the direction that the government had to prove how Major Witt’s sexuality was disruptive to the cohesion of her unit.

The US Supreme Court, in making its decision, deferred to the Congressional findings concerning unit cohesion. Those findings were not based upon any accurate data, and are over a decade old now.

Congress is working on the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, but there is no concrete determination on when that will be passed. President Obama has stated that he does not have the authority to put an end to discharges under DADT, but others have disagreed with that. It may be that he is reluctant to end the polity by executive fiat. During the campaign, President Obama promised to repeal DADT, and many LGBTI groups are growing impatient concerning the long delay.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31168203/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/08/supreme-court-rejects-cha_n_212534.html