ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604080023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military.
In a 9-4 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said "the judiciary has no authority to make rules for the regulation of military forces."
The ruling was issued in the case of former Navy Lt. Paul Thomasson, who was dismissed from the Navy in June after writing a note to his commanding admiral stating: "I am gay."
Although there are at least eight other legal challenges nationwide to the controversial policy, Thomasson's case is the first to be ruled on at the federal appeals level.
Thomasson said in an interview soon after the ruling that he once hoped to become "the Navy's first openly gay admiral," and added he is considering an appeal. "I want to do what's best for the cause," he said, "and if that means taking my case to the Supreme Court, I'll do it."
To date, judges across the country have shown no consensus in their rulings on the policy. In the eight other cases that have been decided in federal district courts, judges have ruled five times that the policy is legal and three times that it is unconstitutional.
That ambivalence was found among the nine appeals court judges Friday. They agreed that the overarching principle is that the courts have no power to overrule a president's military policies.
"To do so would not only overturn the efforts of the elected branches of government to resolve a significant question of national military policy," Judge Harvie Wilkinson wrote. "It would also violate much plain and settled Supreme Court precedent."
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB