The Department of Justice lost their bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the ACLU yesterday. In a class action lawsuit, Collins vs. United States, the ACLU is alleging the Department of Defense practiced unconstitutional and discriminatory compensation policy by cutting separation pay for gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers in half.
The DOJ sought to dismiss the case. ACLU represents decorated former staff-sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Richard Collins (pictured), and 142 other former servicemembers.
Tuesday, Judge Christine O.C. Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied the government's request for dismissal and will allow these veterans to be heard in court.
From Judge Miller's ruling:
Given the interpretative challenges embedded in this regulatory scheme, defendant has not shown that the complaint fails to state a claim for which plaintiff is entitled to relief. Based on the well-pleaded allegations, plaintiff could prevail under the regulatory structure, which requires further exploration and analysis that are inappropriate for this stage of the proceedings.
Judge Miller's
decision is here (pdf).
From the ACLU's blog:
We filed this lawsuit on behalf of Collins and 142 other service members about a year ago. We expected at the time that, once Congress passed the statute authorizing repeal of DADT, the government would quickly settle the case and give these honorably discharged service members the separation pay they are entitled to. Instead, the government has inexplicably dragged its feet every step of the way.
In May, the government asked the court to dismiss the case, without even defending the constitutionality of the policy. Instead the government argued that the courts could not provide any relief to service members whose separation pay was cut in half while DADT was still in effect. It didn't make sense to us, and apparently, it didn't make any sense to the court. Today, Judge Christine O.C. Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied the government's request and will allow these veterans to be heard.
The court's decision means that these 142 service members will finally have their day in court. The government will have to explain to them and to the rest of the public how cutting their pay in half served important governmental interests. The government will have to make that explanation, even though the Pentagon has already issued a detailed report making clear that discrimination against gay and lesbian service members is entirely unnecessary and doesn't serve the interests of the military.
Parties are ordered to submit a joint proposed schedule for any discovery and briefing on plaintiff’s motion to certify the class by October 31, 2011.
The administration should just settle this case, admit no error, give these veterans the roughly $2M they are asking for and put an end to this unpleasantness once and for all.