Obama Urges Court to Reinstate DADT

The Obama administration says repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy is going smoothly—but it wants a court to reinstate the ban on gays in the military as soon as possible. For a little while anyway. The Justice Department filed a motion yesterday asking a federal appeals court in California to lift its injunction blocking enforcement of the policy, reports CNN. Essentially, the administration wants the policy to end under the repeal process approved by Congress, which is just weeks away, not through a court mandate.

Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson says doing so would bring a more "orderly and sustainable" end to the policy. That argument was rejected by the gay Republican group whose lawsuit led to the injunction. DADT "is an offense to American values that should have been gone long ago," a Log Cabin Republicans spokesman says. "It is shameful that a president who has taken credit for opposing the policy is taking extreme measures to keep it on life support."