Tag Archives: repeal. Department of Justice

Department of Justice Files Appeal Briefs For Defense of DOMA in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management Case

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Well its back to business as usual for the White House and Obama’s Department of Justice as they announced yesterday that they were going to be appealing the two rulings, in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Department of Health and Human Services, in which Judge Joseph Tauro of Boston ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the Fifth Amendment and impedes the state of Massachusetts’s ability to define marriage.

The DOJ is arguing that there is”ongoing” dialogue between states on the issue of marriage, amd offers three reasons why DOMA valid.

*1. Congress Could Have Rationally Concluded That DOMA Promotes A Legitimate Interest in Preserving a National Status Quo at the Federal Level While States Engage in a Period of Evaluation of and Experience with Opening Marriage to Same-Sex Couples.

*2. Congress Could Reasonably Conclude That DOMA Serves a Legitimate Federal Interest in Uniform Application of Federal Law Within and Across States During a Period When Important State Laws Differ.

*3. Congress Could Reasonably Have Believed That by Maintaining the Status Quo, DOMA Serves the General Federal Interest of Respecting Policy Development among the States While Preserving the Authority of Each Sovereign to Choose its Own Course

Total and utter bullshit.

As long as there are Federal Rights and Laws intertwined in marriage it is not only a States decision

It’s going to be a very rough next few years.

Department of Justice Appeals Lesbian Nurse Margaret Witt’s Reinstatement To The Military As Ordered By Judge

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U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton in Tacoma ruled in September that Maj. Margaret Witt’s dismissal under the military’s DADT policy violated her rights. Witt was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged after the Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She sued to get her job back. and won.

Today the Justice Department,  filed an appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals right before the deadline as usual.

White House Press Secretary and rsident smug asshole Robert Gibbs released the following statement:

“Today, the Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal in a case involving a legal challenge to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy, as the Department traditionally does when acts of Congress have been held unconstitutional. This filing in no way diminishes the President’s — and his Administration’s — firm commitment to achieving a legislative repeal of DADT this year. Indeed, it clearly shows why Congress must act to end this misguided policy. In recent weeks, the President and other Administration officials have been working with the Senate to move forward with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, including a repeal of DADT, during the lame duck.”

“This filing in no way diminishes the President’s — and his Administration’s — firm commitment to achieving a legislative repeal of DADT this year.”

So tell me.  Is there anyone out therse still deluded enough to believe this?

Simply put.  The Obama Administration can go fuck itself.

The Department Of Justice Says Defending DADT and DOMA Has Been ‘Difficult – Oh Blow Me!’

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Not too difficult obviously.

Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Tony West (pictured left) spead some mighty bullshit today in an interview with Talking Points Memo about the DOJ, theObama administration and gay rights.

“Those are difficult cases because as you know the administration has a long standing policy view on this — supports the repeal of DOMA and supports the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’…The Department of Justice, notwithstanding the administration policy view which is strongly held by us, has an institutional responsibility to defend the constitutionality of congressional statutes, whether we agree with them or not.”

West also said that the  DOJ was discharging its responsibility to the tradition of the Justice Department while making adjustments to the arguments in line with the administration’s views.

“I think that the best example — let me give you one — in the Defense of Marriage Act — you’ll notice that we have not only discharged our responsibility to defend the constitutionality of a congressional statute, but we’ve done so in a way which reflects the policy values of this administration,” West said.

Nothing in the Constitution or federal law requires the DOJ to defend laws the administration believes are unconstitutional and a  law is not constitutional simply because Congress passed it.

DADT and DOMA *are* unconstitutional according to a handful of courts where Obama elected–elected–to use the power of the Executive to single-handedly prop up anti-gay discrimination where it was struck down

As for Mr. West, and the DOJ it didn’t seem too”difficult” invoking disgusting homophobic canards, like bestiality and pedophilia, when you defebded DOMA.   Did it?

Federal Judge ORDERS Obama Administration To Stop All DADT Discharges Immediately"

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Earlier today U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips who last month ruled that DADT was UNCONSTITUTIONAL saying that the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy violates the 1st Amendment rights of lesbians and gay members,after hearing appreals (And of course the DOJ had to appeal it.) has ordered the Defense Department to ‘immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding.'”

ORDERS Defendants United States of America and the Secretary of Defense immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Act, or pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 654 or its implementing regulations, on or prior to the date of this Judgment

This is probably the LAST chance that President Obama will have to take the easy route out and toput up or shut up. Blame the judge and don;t appeal.  Obama doesn’t have to fight this decision., the DOJ doesn’t have to seek a stay —  For the past year, a wide array of apologists have challenged that view.  What happens now will truly l tell you all you need to know about whether the Democratic party is on your side, or whether they are simply using you for your vote and your money. 

Expect a decision shortly from the White House.

Judge In Upcoming DADT Federal Trail BLOCKS Obama Administrations Request To Limit Testimony

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U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips who will be hearing a case brought against the Obama Administration challenging the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law brought by the Log Cabin Republicans (go figure on that one.) has ruled AGAINT the Departmernt of Justice and the Obama Administration’s effort to bar all testimony on whether Don’t ask, Don’t tell actually benefits the military and how it’s affected the lives of individual service members.

According to Justice Department lawyers, the only pertinent question is whether Congress could have rationally decided when it passed the law in 1993 that it would make the military more effective by reducing potential sources of conflict. It’s legally irrelevant, the government lawyers say, that the Log Cabin Republicans have researchers prepared to testify that the law was irrational from the start and hasn’t accomplished its stated goals, or that former gay and lesbian service members could testify about their discharges.

But Phillips, who will preside over the non-jury trial, said Friday she doesn’t plan to limit the evidence to whatever Congress may have considered in 1993. She pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2003 that overturned laws banning private homosexual conduct. As Phillips noted, the court didn’t confine itself to reviewing the legislative records in Texas, where the case arose, but considered the purpose and effect of the law before striking it down as an intrusion on personal privacy.

Phillips hasn’t ruled yet on the critical legal question in the case — whether the government can justify the law by citing any conceivable reason for its enactment, or whether administration lawyers will have to show that the ban actually serves a legitimate government purpose. She also hasn’t ruled on the government’s request to delay the trial until Congress acts on legislation to repeal don’t ask, don’t tell

The Log Cabin Republicans’ lawyers say they anticipate favorable rulings on those issues as well and expect to go to trial this month with a good chance of getting the 17-year-old law tossed out.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration and the Department of Justice is going to be defending the discriminatory DADT law in court next week. And, the Obama administration and DOJ continue to defend DOMA in federal courts.  And as for the DADT (Non) Repeal Compromise which does actually nothing to protect gays and lesbians against discharge . It could be awhile before Congress acts on legislation to repeal the law. We’re hearing that Senate consideration of the Defense authorization bill, which contains the compromise repeal language, won’t begin until September. Assuming the repeal language remains in the defense bill, a vote on the conference report could be delayed until December.

So I ask you, where is the change and advocacy we were promised by Obama?  Because asking Courts to uphold “separate, but equal” laws isn’t exactly change.

Obama Administration Talks Out Both Sides Of It’s Mouth Concerning DADT – Department Of Justice Attemps To Get Log Cabin Republicans Lawsuit Thrown Out.

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After all the talk about getting rid of DADT by the Obama Administration, this week, federal attorneys from The Department of justice made another go at trying to gett the Log Cabin Republicans’ Don’t Ask Don’t Tell lawsuit thrown out of court…….again.

Remember: These lawyers aren’t acting without direction from the White House. The same White House that has stated publicly DADT is unconstitutional. And the same White House that could order DOJ to stand down.

Judge Virginia Phillips denied DOJ’s last attempt to have the case dismissed. So the DOJ has a new tactic:  Demanding a summary judgment. And in doing so, language like this was part of its motion:

These rules are necessitated by, among other things, “[t]he worldwide deployment of United States military forces, the international responsibilities of the United States, and the potential for involvement of the armed forces in actual combat routinely [which] make it necessary for members of the armed forces involuntarily to accept living conditions and working conditions that are often spartan, primitive, and characterized by forced intimacy with little or no privacy.” Id. § 654(a)(12). Congress’s policy judgment culminated, as noted, in its finding that “[t]he presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

Attention DOJ.  There are ALREADY Homo’s in the Shower, the mess hall, the bunks, and in the gym sauna.

It’s amazing that in this day and age of the internet and immidiate news that this administration can still think they can talk out of both sides of their mouths and nobody is going to notice.