According to the Wikipedia article on Margarethe Cammermeyer, in June 1994, Judge Thomas Zilly of the Federal District Court in Seattle ruled that ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military was unconstitutional. If this is the case, why can gays and lesbians still be discharged from military service in the US? Was Zilly’s ruling overturned on appeal? Or was it found to apply only to the military’s policy prior to implementation of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rule?
Homosexual people are not banned from serving in the military.
Why would you even bother posting this when you have to know that it’s going to accomplish nothing other than muddying the question?
In point of fact, at the time Cammermeyer was discharged homosexuals were banned from military service.
It was not the grounds that Cammermeyer argued her case on, but I once read an article by a lawyer who argued that the military could not prohibit gays from serving in the armed forces because of the Second Amendment. His argument was the the right to bear arms gave people a right to military service.
Because it’s a fact.
The question asked about the current situation. Currently, homosexual people are not banned from serving.
And just to explain the general principles of precedent in US federal law…
A federal district court’s rulings general affect only the parties to a particular case; they do not have application as binding precedent.
A federal appeals court is known as a “Circuit Court,” and its rulings are binding precedent within the territory of its circuit. For example, the Fourth Circuit encompasses Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina. A ruling on an issue by the Fourth Circuit would be binding federal law in those states, but not elsewhere. (Because federal law should theoretically strive to be uniform across the country, federal circuits consider circuit opinions not their own as “persuasive,” meaning they give some deference to them, but not binding).
Finally, of course, a ruling by the Supreme Court creates binding federal precedent anywhere in the country.
To expand on my previous post. The 9th Circuit found that the case was moot because she had been reinstated and the ban had been replaced by don’t ask don’t tell. It did not vacate the lower court’s opinion, but remanded the case to the district court so Zilly could decide the case. I looked on Pacer. The US moved to vacate the decision. The judge denied the motion. OTOH, Zilly’s ruling did not address “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and a district court opinion is not controlling precedent anyway (I see **Bricker ** beat me to the punch on this).
Here is a CRS brief on the status of the current regs: Homosexuals and U.S. Military Policy: Current Issues - UNT Digital Library
But it’s a fact presented in such a way as is likely to cause confusion. If you can’t be bothered to post your fact with some sort of context then there’s pretty much no point to your fact.
The OP did asked about gays and lesbians being “discharged” from military service. Focus on the OP and not the thread title.
Openly gay people are still prohibited from serving, even with DADT.
Right, and this is the ban to which I was referring. Only someone who chose to read only the thread title and not the actual post (which clearly mentioned DADT) would possibly have thought otherwise.