Why the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy is doomed

Posted February 13th, 2010 by JTjaden

Why the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy is doomed

By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey
Saturday, February 13, 2010; A21

    When the Pentagon's top brass announced last week that they no longer believe military unit cohesion suffers from the presence of openly gay men or women in the ranks, they effectively transformed a policy question into a legal one, to which the answer is clear: Congress can no longer mandate discrimination in the armed forces on the basis of sexual orientation.

    In the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law criminalizing same-gender sexual relations, reasoning that such conduct was part of a constitutionally protected liberty interest. The court also suggested that the Texas statute was vulnerable to challenge as a denial of equal protection of the laws. And it is application of the equal protection doctrine to the military's professional assessment of the impact that openly gay service members have on combat effectiveness that is likely to be the end of "don't ask, don't tell."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR201002...