Color me pissed...
Jun. 8th, 2009 10:45 amThe Supreme Court has rejected the challenge to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy - at the request of the President.
I am...so disappointed. Part of me is hopefully that the Administration is detouring off this path so as to pave a new one once there are more of those pesky empathic judges on the Court or to approach the repeal of DADT from the executive order way.
But there is another part of me that remains skeptical that the most ludicrous law ever will remain on the books despite Obama's promise to the contrary.
(FWIW, this is not something the Congress officially has any say in, but they wouldn't be Congress if they didn't try to step in via the "power of the purse strings".)
I fail at policy today - I had it stuck in my brain it was an executive order when in fact it was passed by Congress. I still believe that any legislation on this issue won't move until Obama presents it to the Congress. No way Congress would do this on it's own.
EDIT #2 - I just had the ah-ha moment on this. If the Supreme Court had taken up this case, it would've put the Obama Administration in the awkward position of having to defend the policy. As the case is filed against the US government, the Solicitor General would've handled the case and thus the Administration would've officially gone on record as having to defend DADT and the ousting of gays from the US military.
I still think he needs to take a much grander stand on this, but it does seem to make sense in an oddly DC political way.
(and now I see the article I linked to says kind of the same thing...)
I am...so disappointed. Part of me is hopefully that the Administration is detouring off this path so as to pave a new one once there are more of those pesky empathic judges on the Court or to approach the repeal of DADT from the executive order way.
But there is another part of me that remains skeptical that the most ludicrous law ever will remain on the books despite Obama's promise to the contrary.
I fail at policy today - I had it stuck in my brain it was an executive order when in fact it was passed by Congress. I still believe that any legislation on this issue won't move until Obama presents it to the Congress. No way Congress would do this on it's own.
EDIT #2 - I just had the ah-ha moment on this. If the Supreme Court had taken up this case, it would've put the Obama Administration in the awkward position of having to defend the policy. As the case is filed against the US government, the Solicitor General would've handled the case and thus the Administration would've officially gone on record as having to defend DADT and the ousting of gays from the US military.
I still think he needs to take a much grander stand on this, but it does seem to make sense in an oddly DC political way.
(and now I see the article I linked to says kind of the same thing...)