Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Push It: The Obama administration rides the brakes on legal challenge

Amanda Bronstad writing at Law.com (The National Law Journal): Yet when the government’s lawyers appeared for a hearing in federal court in Riverside, Calif., on Feb. 18, it was to defend the so-called ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law against a constitutional challenge — or at least argue for leaving it alone for now. ‘There has been a lot of movement; toward repealing the law, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Freeborne acknowledged under questioning by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips, who is reviewing a constitutional challenge to the measure. Still, Freeborne saw that ‘movement’ as cause for delay, not capitulation. He asked the judge to postpone the proceedings in light of the political developments but insisted: ‘We continue to defend the statute.’”