Judge Bans Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy

It looks like the bigoted and failed military policy called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) may finally have been tossed on the trash heap of history where it belongs -- if the president has the political courage to keep his campaign promise.   President Obama has been promising since before his election to end DADT, but has yet to live up to that promise.

He could have issued an executive order to end it anytime in the past couple of years (like President Truman did to end racial segregation in the military), but that would have required some political courage to unilaterally make that move.   President Obama has not shown a lot of political courage so far.   He wants Congress to share the blame for this decision.   He could have put some public pressure on Congress to act on the issue also, but he hasn't done that either.

With both the president and the Congress failing to end DADT and strike a blow for equality, it looks like it's up to the third branch of government to do the job -- the federal court system.   And unlike Congress and the president, it looks like they may actually be up to the task.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton of Washington State issued an order directing the military to give Air Force Major Margaret Witt her job back.   She had been kicked out because the military found out she was living in a committed relationship with a civilian woman.   That struck a real blow against DADT, since future soldiers could use this as a precedent to fight their own termination as a result of DADT.

Now a California federal judge has gone even further.   U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips had already ruled that DADT was not constitutional, and yesterday she used that ruling to ban any further use of the DADT policy.   And her ruling is not just a local ban -- it is a nationwide ban affecting everyone in the military.

The federal government, who had been defending DADT in the court, now has 60 days to appeal the decision.   But I don't know why the government would want to appeal the judge's decision.   This decision gives both the president and Congress an easy way out of their dilemma.   They can keep their promise to voters by doing nothing.   The judge will take the heat and the politicians can have their political cover.

I hope the president is smart enough (and brave enough) to tell the Attorney General not to appeal this decision.   But after watching him waffle and retreat on the health care bill until it was only a shadow of the reform that was really needed, I wouldn't bet any money on it.   The president and many other Democrats seem to have decided that it's easier to give in to the Republicans than fight them.