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Federal Judge in Riverside Orders Military to Stop Enforcing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
An Inland Empire-based Federal Judge today ordered the U.S. Military from enforcing the 1993-enacted "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which discharges openly gay service members. The Obama Administration requested U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillip, who ruled the policy unconstitutional last month, to delay an injunction on enforcement, but today she ordered the government to "immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation or other proceeding" into a service member's sexual orientation, and to stop enforcement, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
If the Obama Administration appeals the decision, it could request a stay from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. President Barack Obama opposes the policy and hoped it would be repealed in congress, where it was blocked in the U.S. Senate.
The government was sued by the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group, and the case was heard in Riverside.
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