A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco ruled today the U.S. military's “don't ask, don't tell” policy must be
immediately lifted.
The legal battle over the 20-year-old policy is still being played out in courts, but the justices say it must end now that the Obama administration says it's unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.
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The Associated Press has the scoop on the ruling that stems from a lawsuit filed by a gay rights group over the government timeline for
eliminating the ban.
To further justify the immediate end of “don't ask, don't tell,” the justices also cited Congress having repealed the policy in December
and the Pentagon beginning to certify that it is ready to
welcome gay military personnel.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.