In a follow-up to its May study that showed President Obama could effectively end DADT with an executive order, The Palm Center has issued a memo in response to Gates’ statement last week that he was looking into a flexible implementation of DADT. The memo (PDF) outlines the steps the Secretary of Defense can take to modify the enforcement of DADT while the President works with Congress to repeal the law:
The memo explains the legal authority and details several options for the Defense Secretary in modifying its enforcement. These range from retaining all service member targeted under “don’t ask, don’t tell” for a limited period of time in the interests of national security, to requiring that any investigation of a service member for homosexual conduct be conducted only with prior approval of the Defense Secretary.
The legal memo also makes clear that any steps which “fall short of ceasing all discharges under ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will have a negligible operational effect on gay and lesbian troops, and therefore on our national security.”
Dr. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center agreed, “In Britian and Israel, modifying enforcement was followed by an end to their bans. Given the research showing that openly gay service works, as well as the political climate and public support for repeal, I’d imagine the same might happen here.”
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