Obama Lawyers Back Military Gay Ban At Supreme Court

The Obama administration said the U.S. Supreme Court should let the military continue to bar openly gay people under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, arguing that a change in the law should come from Congress, not the courts.

Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal, the administration’s top courtroom lawyer, today urged the justices not to reinstate a federal judge’s order that had temporarily suspended the law.

U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips declared the law unconstitutional in September, and a Republican gay-rights group is seeking to put that ruling into effect immediately. A federal appeals court put Phillips’s order on hold.

“It was entirely appropriate for the court of appeals to defer to the considered judgment of senior military leaders that any change in policy must be done in an orderly and careful manner in order to be successful,” Katyal argued in papers filed in Washington.

In asking the Supreme Court to lift the ban while the litigation goes forward, the Log Cabin Republicans said the government “presented no evidence to support a finding that open service by gay and lesbian individuals harmed the military’s interests.”

GO HERE to read more.