Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals gave the Department of Justice 10 days to decide if it will continue to defend the constitutionality of DADT. If not, DOJ must inform Congress of its decision, which could mean another hefty contract for Paul Clement if Boehner decides to defend DADT, too. Then, Boehner would be fighting the Log Cabin Republicans in Court.
Here's the meat of the order:
(1) the Government is hereby ordered to advise the court whether it intends to submit a report to Congress under § 530D(a)(1)(B)(ii) outlining its decision to refrain from defending § 654;How about certifying the repeal and getting it over with -- something that should have been done months ago.
(2) the Government is further ordered, if such report is to be submitted, to advise whether it will do so within such time as to enable Congress to take action to intervene in timely fashion in this proceeding, as provided in § 530D(b)(2);
(3) the parties are ordered to show cause why this case should not be dismissed as moot, either immediately or upon such time as the President certifies that all conditions for the repeal of § 654 set forth in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act have been satisfied.
The responses to this order shall take the form of letters to the court no longer than ten pages or 2800 words, and shall be submitted within ten days of the date of this order.
SLDN issued this statement (UPDATED with new version):
“The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is correctly pressing the Department of Justice and Department of Defense on whether or not they intend to defend the constitutionality of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ It is our hope they will not continue to do so, and we will soon have finality with certification and repeal.”Get it done.
Here's the full order:
LCR v. USA - ORDER
