Feds Ordered to Explain DADT Discrimination

The federal judge hearing a case next week to challenge the military's ban on gay and lesbian service members decided Wednesday the government must submit evidence justifying why it has enforced the law.

In a pretrial ruling, U.S. district judge Virginia Phillips said the Obama administration's lawyers must show that Congress came to a reasonable conclusion that barring gays and lesbians from serving openly provided for a more effective military. Phillips said recent legal outcomes have raised the bar and demanded more evidence to justify antigay discrimination, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The trial, scheduled to begin Tuesday in Riverside, Calif., stems from a suit by the Log Cabin Republicans, specifically highlighting the discharge of former Army intelligence collector Alexander Nicholson and an unnamed service member still in the military.