DADT Stay Extended by Ninth Circuit

Following up on this post, the Ninth Circuit motions panel has issued this order extending the stay of the district court's order on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." My earlier post noted that the judges dispensed with a reply brief. From Judge Fletcher's dissent today, we now know that Judges O'Scannlain and Trott also would not agree to Judge Fletcher's desire to hear oral argument in the case. Whether they did so to keep possession of the case (a new panel (Leavy, McKeown, and Berzon) comes on today) without issuing some order to keep the case I do not know. It does seem odd that the other judges would not indulge a judge's request to hear oral argument in the case, unless there was a strong press of time against doing so.

This case will now go before a different merits panel, which decide the appeal from DADT on the merits (unless it is mooted by congressional or other political action).

Posted by Rick Hasen at November 1, 2010 04:02 PM