tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post3320990956868398232..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Dear Mr. PresidentDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-85412656756015657662009-05-29T07:59:46.855-07:002009-05-29T07:59:46.855-07:00> Your promise to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell w...> Your promise to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was removed and then<br />> replaced with a watered-down version.<br /><br />FWIW:<br /><br />(from http://hunterforjustice.typepad.com/hunter_of_justice/military/ )<br /><br />May 07, 2009<br /><br />Justice Dept does the obvious thing in second DADT case<br /><br />Yesterday, the Justice Department filed its opposition to certiorari<br />( http://hunterforjustice.typepad.com/files/pietrangelo-opp-cert.pdf )<br />in the DADT case involving one of the plaintiffs in Cook v Gates,<br />528 F.3d 42 (1st Cir. 2008), who had asked the Supreme Court to<br />review the Court of Appeals decision upholding the military's policy.<br />The other 11 plaintiffs asked that the Court not grant review, even<br />though they had lost. (See below for why) <br /><br />There is virtually no chance that the Court will take the case, since<br />the precedent for rejecting facial challenges to this policy is unanimous.<br />Nonetheless, the Department, through the office of the solicitor general,<br />had to respond to the petition. <br /><br />The most interesting thing about the opp cert brief is that it is the<br />first document related to an lgbt rights issue filed with the Supreme Court<br />by the Obama Justice Department, and so it provides the first glimpse<br />of how the new team will approach gay issues. The answer seems to be -<br />with political savvy.<br /><br />The brief can perhaps be best described as minimalist. It was clearly<br />crafted to do the least possible damage to future efforts to eliminate<br />DADT either in the courts or in Congress. Although it does state that<br />"[t]he decision of the court of appeals is correct," it successfully<br />ducks the issue of which standard of review the Court should apply in<br />testing laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation, by arguing<br />that military cases are unique. <br /><br />The plaintiff had asked the Court to take the case to address what the<br />standard of review should be post-Lawrence v. Texas. The Department argued<br />that "[a]pplying the strong deference traditionally afforded to the<br />Legislative and Executive Branches in the area of military affairs, the<br />court of appeals properly upheld the statute. ...The court's decision<br />upholding [DADT] rested not on its choice of a formal standard of review,<br />but on its strong deference to Congress's judgments on matters relating<br />to the armed forces."<br /><br />The other plaintiffs in this case asked the Court to deny review so that<br />a better case in a different circuit (Witt v. United States) would not<br />be cut off from further factual development, a strategy that Justice has<br />enabled by declining to seek Supreme Court review of the 9th Circuit<br />decision that the government lost in Witt. Details here.<br />( http://hunterforjustice.typepad.com/hunter_of_justice/2009/05/<br />justice-dept-does-the-right-thing-in-witt-case.html )jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-46907483124202298882009-05-28T17:14:06.304-07:002009-05-28T17:14:06.304-07:00I have said Obama is the most progressive presiden...I have said Obama is the most progressive president in my memory, the first President in my lifetime about whom I feel a real abiding pride and enthusiasm, and I have said that Obama might manage in the long term to helm the most practically progressive Administration since FDR. I still think all of that is completely and even obviously true. I'm still proud and happy that Obama my President, something I've never felt before in my life. That assessment and feeling is easily reconciled with my awareness that there is plenty to disagree with and push him on, including matters involving campaign promises and policy toward queer folks like me. Is all that too complicated for you to follow, Captain Sarcastic?Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-67389390590129098032009-05-28T15:54:19.553-07:002009-05-28T15:54:19.553-07:00Your commitment to repeal DOMA has been removed fr...<I>Your commitment to repeal DOMA has been removed from the White House website. Your promise to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was removed and then replaced with a watered-down version. And in the aftermath of yesterday’s California Supreme Court ruling, you have remained silent while your press secretary summarily dismisses questions about the issue.</I>Obama the most progressive president the US ever had, ladies and gentleman!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com