Sodomy Ruling Spurs Challenges to Military's Policy on Gays

Monday, August 4, 2003; Page A01

The first aftershocks of the Supreme Court's landmark decision striking down a Texas sodomy law have reached the U.S. military, where the ruling is sparking new court challenges to the armed forces' ban on openly gay personnel and other rules affecting sexuality.

A gay former officer is citing the ruling, known as Lawrence v. Texas, in a lawsuit challenging his dismissal from the Army. Another soldier is invoking Lawrence to fight his court-martial conviction for a sexual offense. And the Pentagon's own lawyers are pondering whether the case requires adjustments to military criminal law.

Lawrence is unlikely to create any immediate changes in policy, legal analysts said. Legal challenges must overcome federal courts' historical deference to Congress and the executive branch on national security matters -- as well as the presumption that members of the military do not necessarily enjoy the same constitutional protections as civilians.

But at a minimum, Lawrence will make the government rethink the legal defenses it used successfully in the 1990s during the furious debates over gays in the military, obliging it to rely more heavily on the notion that the presence of acknowledged gays is inherently disruptive to the military's effectiveness, legal analysts said.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16963-2003Aug3.html