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Is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Unconstitutional After Lawrence? What It Will Take To Overturn The Policy, Diane H. Mazur
Is "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Unconstitutional After Lawrence? What It Will Take To Overturn The Policy, Diane H. Mazur
UF Law Faculty Publications
There can be a certain politeness to legal challenges to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the congressional policy that attempts - fitfully, incompletely, and arbitrarily - to exclude gay citizens from both the responsibilities and privileges of military service.' We consider whether the military has articulated a "rational basis" for the policy – some explanation of the military's belief that it is at least rational (as opposed to irrational) to classify servicemembers as straight or gay and accept or reject them accordingly, all in the interest of military effectiveness. We accept the fact that judges assume there is a need for …
Querying Lawrence, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol
Querying Lawrence, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol
UF Law Faculty Publications
In 2003, the Supreme Court in the landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas found a Texas law, banning homosexual, but not heterosexual, sodomy to be unconstitutional. Thus, Lawrence ended the Bowers era in which morality was deemed to be a justification for discrimination against gays and lesbians. While the decision did bring to United States Constitutional analysis the radical idea that gays and lesbians are people too, it stopped short of addressing the real problem the case presents--the existence of a second-class citizenry. This Article examines the Lawrence decision in light of both the international, regional, and foreign jurisprudence and the …