The Supreme Court declined to accept a constitutional challenge to "don't ask, don't tell," the congressionally mandated policy that bars openly gay individuals from serving in the military.
The ruling spared the Obama administration from having to defend in court a policy the president said during the campaign should be repealed. The case, involving an Army captain who had been dismissed under the policy, also lost at the appeals court level. The administration argued then that the policy is "rationally related to the government's legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion."
Opponents of "don't ask, don't tell" are running out of court challenges. The federal appeals court in San Francisco did OK one challenge going forward, and, while it will be interesting to see how the Air Force justifies expelling a decorated flight nurse in the interest of military readiness and unit cohesion, the courts have consistently sided with the government.
The courts will likely say that if the policy is to be overturned it is up to the executive branch and Congress to do so. However, Obama seems in no rush to take on the issue nor does any major bloc in Congress.
Most of the American public is in favor of gays serving openly -- especially if the issue is framed in terms of critical skills, like Arab-speaking intelligence officers -- and so perhaps is a plurality of the serving military.
However, gay rights issues have tremendous resonance among Republican social conservatives who are desperate for any issue to bash Obama. Bill Clinton stumbled badly at the outset of his presidency by seeming to make lifting the ban on gays in the military an early priority.
Thus was the policy of "don't ask, don't tell" formulated and enacted into law. The faculties that try to bar military recruiters from campus because of the policy seem peculiarly resistant to the idea that their beef is with the White House and the Congress, not the Pentagon.
American society has changed greatly in its acceptance of gays, and a policy that made sense in 1993 perhaps makes little sense now.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Post new comment