In preparing my Obama scandals list, there were two issues that I had not followed that closely but about which I found the research quite interesting. These were DADT and DOMA. I will present my entry for DADT today and for DOMA tomorrow. Enjoy.

Back in April 2008 candidate Obama supported the elimination of the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy,

“I think there’s increasing recognition within the Armed Forces that this is a counterproductive strategy. We’re spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need. That doesn’t make us more safe.”

Nevertheless, he said at the time that he would not make repeal of the policy a criterion in selection of members to the Joint Chiefs.

Since becoming President, Obama has significantly backtracked on his pledge. On June 8, 2009, the Supreme Court denied cert to James Pietrangelo II, a former Army Captain in the JAG corps, who was contesting DADT. He was forced out of the military in 2004 after coming out. In an opposing brief, Elena Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General, stated, that the prohibition on gays serving openly in the military was “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.” In another case also dating from 2004, the Obama Administration is continuing the Bush era dismissal of Air Force Major Margaret Witt. In this case, an appeals court has required the Administration show what interest it served to separate this much decorated officer from the military.

In June 2009, Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs began putting out the line that the proper avenue to repeal the 1993 DADT act was legislation, but, in fact, Obama has proposed no legislation on the subject. Congress has scheduled no hearings. I was curious if stopping service separations based on DADT could only be accomplished through a change in the law. So I looked at the text of the statute, something that apparently no one in the Obama Administration has done. The reasons for separation are given in part (b) of the act and these are that the person has engaged in homosexual acts, has declared that they are homosexual or bisexual, or has attempted to marry someone of the same sex. But part (e) of the act states the following:

Nothing in subsection (b) shall be construed to require that a member of the armed forces be processed for separation from the armed forces when a determination is made in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense that— …

(2) separation of the member would not be in the best interest of the armed forces.

Now call me naïve but such a determination by the SecDef seems like a very straightforward way to administratively overturn DADT. Obama could have acted if he had wanted to on this issue by so directing his Secretary of Defense. That he didn’t is a fairly clear indication that he didn’t want to.

This is item 46 of my Obama scandals list