by
Michael Rogers
The United States Court in the Ninth Circuit has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) against the US Military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy PageOneQ has learned. The decision by LCR to not include the names of plaintiffs in the original suit resulted in the court ruling that the organization "lacks associational standing" to pursue the case.
The court ordered the Log Cabin organization to reveal the name of at least one of the plaintiffs if they want the case to proceed, and requires that the named plaintiff(s) be active members of the Log Cabin Republicans. The ruling also requires the plaintiff to be a current or past member of the US Armed Forces who has been injured by the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, The court imposed deadline for re-filing of the case is April 28.
According to the court's ruling, issued on March 21, LCR indicated it was necessary to withhold the names of its members who are plaintiffs because the disclosure of their identities "subject them to investigation and discharge." On page 16 of the 18-page ruling, the court refuted those claims, citing other court cases in which the plaintiffs were named. In a case filed by the Servicemember's Legal Defense Network in 2005 (CHECK), Thomas Cook et. al. v. Donald Rumsfeld et. al. No. 04-12546 (D. Mass), a dozen plaintiffs were listed in the complaint. In cases challenging the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy plaintiffs have been named since at least 1996, when the American Civil Liberties Union filed Thomasson v. Perry, 80 F.3d 915 (4th Cir. 1996) with assistance from SLDN.
"The decision in the Log Cabin suit does not address the legal questions surrounding 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' but focuses instead on standing to sue," Steve Ralls, Communication's Director of the Servicemember's Legal Defense Network told PageOneQ. Mr. Ralls explained that there have been more than 10,000 men and women discharged under the military's ban since its inception.
