9th Circuit Now Says Recruitment Portion of DADT Can Be Implemented On Congress' Timetable

Once again, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has changed the rules on enforcement of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.  Last October, a district court enjoined enforcement of DADT.  In November, the 9th Circuit stayed that injunction, allowing enforcement of DADT pending appeal.  However on July 7, the 9th Circuit lifted the stay, reinstituting the enforcement ban. (See prior posting.) Now, in an order handed down yesterday in response to an emergency motion for reconsideration, in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, (9th Cir., July 15, 2011), the court changed its mind again and permitted enforcement of one aspect of DADT.  Under the ruling, the military may not investigate, penalize or discharge any current service members under DADT.  However the military does not need to change its recruiting practices at this time.  As reported by the Washington Blade, the military may for now continue to apply DADT to prevent openly gay individuals from enlisting in the military.  Instead the military will apparently be able to implement an end to DADT recruiting practices on its own timetable as set out in Congressional repeal legislation passed last year.  Explaining its order, the 9th Circuit said that the government had not informed the court how far along it was in implementation of the Congressional DADT repeal. However the court also ordered the government to file additional information explaining why it had failed to previously give the court this information.