9th Circuit Reinstates Challenge to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Constitutional Law

9th Circuit Reinstates Challenge to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Posted May 22, 2008, 06:30 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A federal appeals court is allowing an Air Force nurse to challenge the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy under a standard that makes her case easier to prove.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the government would have to show its policy on gays in the military meets a heightened standard of scrutiny, the New York Times reports. The usual standard allows the government to show its policy has a rational basis, a test that has led several courts to uphold “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The 9th Circuit ruling reinstated much of the lawsuit filed by Maj. Margaret Witt, who was fired after a citizen in Spokane, Wash., called the Air Force to report that Witt was living with another woman.

Witt had earned stellar reviews during her 18-year military career, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The court allowed Witt to argue her dismissal violated due process but said she could not argue a violation of equal protection because of an earlier ruling by a 9th Circuit panel.

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